COLON  lALDAMEvS 

AND 

SOOD  W1VEJ 

WMTTEN  BY 

ALICE  NOME  EAKLE 


BOSTON  ANP 
HOVSHTON.NlFFLm  y  COMPANY 

THE  MVERJIDE  VK.ISS  CAMJMPSl 


Copyright,  1895, 
BY  ALICE  MORSE   EARLE. 

All  riffhts  reserved. 


E 


TO 

THE  MEMORY  OF  THE  COLONIAL  DAMES 

Whose  blood  runs  in  my  veins 
Whose  spirit  lives  in  my  work 

Elizabeth  Morse,  Joanna  Hoar,  Esther  Mason,  Deborah 

Atherton,  Sarah   Wyeth,  Anne  Adams,  Elizabeth 

Browne,  Hannah  Phillips,  Mary  Clary,  Silence 

Heard,  Judith  Thurston,  Patience  Foster, 

Martha  Bullard,  Barbara  Sheppard, 

Seaborn  Wilson 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Pagt 

I.  Consorts  and  Relicts / 

//.  Women  of  Affairs 45 

III.  "  Double-  Tongued  and  Naughty  Women"        .  88 

IV.  Boston  Neighbors 709 

V.  A  Fearfull  Female  Travailler  ....  135 

VI.  Two  Colonial  Adventuresses         .        .        .  160 

VII.  The  Universal  Friend i73 

VIII.  Eighteenth-Century  Manners  .  .  .  189- 

IX.  Their  Amusements  and  Accomplishments .  .  206- 

X.  Daughters  of  Liberty 240 

XI.  A  Revolutionary  Housewife  ....  238 

XI L  Fireside  Industries 276 


COLONIAL    DAMES    AND 
GOODWIVES. 


CHAPTER  I. 
CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS. 

IN  the  early  days  of  the  colony  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  careful  lists  were  sent 
back  to  old  England  by  the  magistrates,  tell- 
ing what  "  to  provide  to  send  to  New  Eng- 
land "  in  order  to  ensure  the  successful 
planting  and  tender  nourishing  of  the  new 
settlement.  The  earliest  list  includes  such 
homely  items  as  "benes  and  pese,"  tame 
turkeys,  copper  kettles,  all  kinds  of  useful 
apparel  and  wholesome  food ;  but  the  list  is 
headed  with  a  most  significant,  a  typically 
Puritan  item,  Ministers.  The  list  sent  to 
the  Emigration  Society  by  the  Virginian 
colonists  might  equally  well  have  been 
headed,  to  show  their  most  crying  need, 
with  the  word  Wives. 

The 


2      COLONIAL  DAMES  AND  GOODWIVES. 

The  settlement  of  Virginia  bore  an  entirely 
different  aspect  from  that  of  New  England. 
It  was  a  community  of  men  who  planted 
Jamestown.  There  were  few  women  among 
the  early  Virginians.  In  1608  one  Mistress 
Forrest  came  over  with  a  maid,  Anne  Bur- 
raws,  who  speedily  married  John  Laydon,  the 
first  marriage  of  English  folk  in  the  new 
world.  But  wives  were  few,  save  squaw-wives, 
therefore  the  colony  did  not  thrive.  Sir 
Edwin  Sandys,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Emigra- 
tion Society  in  London,  in  November,  1619, 
said  that  "though  the  colonists  are  seated 
there  in  their  persons  some  four  years,  they 
are  not  settled  in  their  minds  to  make  it 
their  place  of  rest  and  continuance."  They 
all  longed  to  gather  gold  and  to  return  to 
England  as  speedily  as  possible,  to  leave 
that  state  of  "  solitary  uncouthness,"  as  one 
planter  called  it.  Sandys  and  that  delight- 
ful gentleman,  the  friend  and  patron  of 
Shakespeare,  the  Earl  of  Southampton, 
planned,  as  an  anchor  in  the  new  land,  to 
send  out  a  cargo  of  wives  for  these  planters, 
that  the  plantation  might  "  grow  in  genera- 
tions and  not  be  pieced  out  from  without." 
In  1620  the  Jonathan  and  the  London  Mer- 
chant 


CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS.  3 

chant  brought  ninety  maids  to  Virginia  on  a 
venture,  and  a  most  successful  venture  it 
proved. 

There  are  some  scenes  in  colonial  life 
which  stand  out  of  the  past  with  much  clear- 
ness of  outline,  which  seem,  though  no 
details  survive,  to  present  to  us  a  vivid  pic- 
ture. One  is  this  landing  of  ninety  possi- 
ble wives  —  ninety  homesick,  seasick  but 
timidly  inquisitive  English  girls  —  on  James- 
town beach,  where  pressed  forward,  eagerly 
and  amorously  waiting,  about  four  hundred 
lonely  emigrant  bachelors  —  bronzed,  sturdy 
men,  in  leather  doublets  and  breeches  and 
cavalier  hats,  with  glittering  swords  and 
bandoleers  and  fowling-pieces,  without  doubt 
in  their  finest  holiday  array,  to  choose  and 
secure  one  of  these  fair  maids  as  a  wife. 
Oh,  what  a  glorious  and  all-abounding  court- 
ing, a  mating-time,  was  straightway  begun 
on  the  Virginian  shore  on  that  happy  day  in 
May.  A  man  needed  a  quick  eye,  a  ready 
tongue,  a  manly  presence,  if  he  were  to 
succeed  against  such  odds  in  supply  and 
demand,  and  obtain  a  fair  one,  or  indeed 
any  one,  from  this  bridal  array.  But  whoso- 
ever he  won  was  indeed  a  prize,  for  all  were 

asserted 


4      COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

asserted  to  be  "  young,  handsome,  honestly 
educated  maids,  of  honest  life  and  carriage  " 

—  what  more  could  any  man  desire  ?   Gladly 
did   the    husband    pay  to   the    Emigration 

,  Company  the  one  hundred  and  twenty 
pounds  of  leaf  tobacco,  which  formed,  in  one 
sense,  the  purchase  money  for  the  wife. 
This  was  then  valued  at  about  eighty  dol- 
lars :  certainly  a  man  in  that  matrimonial 
market  got  his  money's  worth  ;  and  the 
complaining  colonial  chronicler  who  asserted 
that  ministers  and  milk  were  the  only  cheap 
things  in  New  England,  might  have  added 

—  and   wives    the    only   cheap     things     in 
Virginia. 

It  was  said  by  old  writers  that  some  of 
these  maids  were  seized  by  fraud,  were 
trapanned  in  England,  that  unprincipled 
spirits  "  took  up  rich  yeomans'  daughters  to 
serve  his  Majesty  as  breeders  in  Virginia 
unless  they  paid  money  for  their  release." 
This  trapanning  was  one  of  the  crying 
abuses  of  the  day,  but  in  this  case  it  seems 
scarcely  present.  For  the  girls  appear  to 
have  been  given  a  perfectly  fair  showing  in 
all  this  barter.  They  were  allowed  to  marry 
no  irresponsible  men,  to  go  nowhere  as  ser- 
vants, 


CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS.  5 

vants,  and,  indeed,  were  not  pressed  to  marry 
at  all  if  against  their  wills.  They  were  to 
be  "housed  lodged  and  provided  for  of  diet " 
until  they  decided  to  accept  a  husband. 
Naturally  nearly  all  did  marry,  and  from  the 
unions  with  these  young,  handsome  and 
godly-carriaged  maids  sprang  many  of  our 
respected  Virginian  families. 

No  coquetry  was  allowed  in  this  mating. 
A  girl  could  not  promise  to  marry  two  men, 
under  pain  of  fine  or  punishment ;  and  at 
least  one  presumptuous  and  grasping  man 
was  whipped  for  promising  marriage  to  two 
girls  at  the  same  time  —  as  he  deserved  to 
be  when  wives  were  so  scarce. 

Other  ship-loads  of  maids  followed,  and 
with  the  establishment  of  these  Virginian 
families  was  dealt,  as  is  everywhere  else 
that  the  family  exists,  a  fatal  blow  at  a  com- 
munity of  property  and  interests,  but  the 
colony  flourished,  and  the  civilization  of  the 
new  world  was  begun.  For  the  unit  of  \ 
society  may  be  the  individual,  but  the  mole- 
cule of  civilization  is  the  family.  When 
men  had  wives  and  homes  and  children  they 
"  sett  down  satysfied  "  and  no  longer  sighed 
for  England.  Others  followed  quickly  and 

eagerly ; 


6      COLONIAL  DAMES  AND  GOOD  WIVES. 

eagerf/";  in  three  years  thirty-five  hundred 
emigrants  had  gone  from  England  to  Vir- 
ginia, a  marked  contrast  to  the  previous 
years  of  uncertainty  and  dissatisfaction. 

Virginia  was  not  the  only  colony  to  import 
wives  for  its  colonists.  In  1706  His  Majesty 
Louis  XIV.  sent  a  company  of  twenty  young 
girls  to  the  Governor  of  Louisiana,  Sieur  de 
Bienville,  in  order  to  consolidate  his  colony. 
They  were  to  be  given  good  homes,  and  to 
be  well  married,  and  it  was  thought  they 
would  soon  teach  the  Indian  squaws  many 
useful  domestic  employments.  These  young 
girls  were  of  unspotted  reputation,  and  up- 
right lives,  but  they  did  not  love  their  new 
homes ;  a  dispatch  of  the  Governor  says  :  — 

The  men  in  the  colony  begin  through  habit  to 
use  corn  as  an  article  of  food,  but  the  women, 
who  are  mostly  Parisians,  have  for  this  kind  of 
food  a  dogged  aversion  which  has  not  been  sub- 
dued. Hence  they  inveigh  bitterly  against  his 
Grace  the  Bishop  of  Quebec  who  they  say  has 
enticed  them  away  from  home  under  pretext  of 
sending  them  to  enjoy  the  milk  and  honey  of  the 
land  of  promise. 

I  don't  know  how  this  venture  succeeded, 

but  I  cannot  fancy  anything  more  like   the 

personification 


CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS.  7 

personification  of  incompatibility,  of  inevita- 
ble failure,  than  to  place  these  young  Paris- 
ian women  (who  had  certainly  known  of  the 
manner  of  living  of  the  court  of  Louis  XIV.) 
in  a  wild  frontier  settlement,  and  to  expect 
them  to  teach  Western  squaws  any  domes- 
tic or  civilized  employment,  and  then  to 
make  them  eat  Indian  corn,  which  they 
loathed  as  do  the  Irish  peasants.  Indeed, 
they  were  to  be  pitied.  They  rebelled  and 
threatened  to  run  away  —  whither  I  cannot 
guess,  nor  what  they  would  eat  save  Indian 
corn  if  they  did  run  away  —  and  they  stirred 
up  such  a  dissatisfaction  that  the  imbroglio 
was  known  as  the  Petticoat  Rebellion,  and 
the  governor  was  much  jeered  at  for  his  un- 
successful wardship  and  his  attempted  matri- 
monial agency. 

In  1721  eighty  young  girls  were  landed 
in  Louisiana  as  wives,  but  these  were  not 
godly-carriaged  young  maids  ;  they  had  been 
taken  from  Houses  of  Correction,  especially 
from  Paris.  In  1728  came  another  company 
known  a.sfilles  a  la  cassette,  or  casket  girls, 
for  each  was  given  by  the  French  govern- 
ment a  casket  of  clothing  to  carry  to  the  new 
home ;  and  in  later  years  it  became  a  matter 

of 


8      COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

of  much  pride  to  Louisianians  that  their 
descent  was  from  the  casket-girls,  rather 
than  from  the  correction-girls. 

Another  wife-market  for  the  poorer  class 
of  wifeless  colonists  was  afforded  through 
the  white  bond-servants  who  came  in  such 
numbers  to  the  colonies.  They  were  of 
three  classes;  convicts,  free-willers  or  re- 
demptioners,  and  "  kids "  who  had  been 
stolen  and  sent  to  the  new  world,  and  sold 
often  for  a  ten  years'  term  of  service. 

Maryland,  under  the  Baltimores,  was  the 
sole  colony  that  not  only  admitted  convicts, 
but  welcomed  them.  The  labor  of  the 
branded  hand  of  the  malefactor,  the  educa- 
tion and  accomplishments  of  the  social  out- 
cast, the  acquirements  and  skill  of  the  intem- 
perate or  over-competed  tradesman,  all  were 
welcome  to  the  Maryland  tobacco-planters ; 
and  the  possibilities  of  rehabilitation  of  for- 
tune, health,  reputation,  or  reestablishment 
of  rectitude,  made  the  custom  not  unwel- 
come to  the  convict  or  to  the  redemptioner. 
Were  the  undoubted  servant  no  rogue,  but 
an  honest  tradesman,  crimped  in  English 
coast-towns  and  haled  off  to  Chesapeake 
tobacco  fields,  he  did  not  travel  or  sojourn, 

perforce, 


CONSORTS  AND   RELICTS.  9 

perforce,  in  low  company.  He  might  find 
himself  in  as  choice  companionship,  with 
ladies  and  gentlemen  of  as  high  quality, 
albeit  of  the  same  character,  as  graced  those 
other  English  harbors  of  ne'er-do-weels, 
Newgate  or  the  Fleet  Prison.  Convicts 
came  to  other  colonies,  but  not  so  openly 
nor  with  so  much  welcome  as  to  Maryland. 

All  the  convicts  who  came  to  the  colonies 
were  not  rogues,  though  they  might  be  con- 
demned persons.  The  first  record  in  Talbot 
County,  Maryland,  of  the  sale  of  a  convict, 
was  in  September,  1716,  "in  the  third  Yeare 
of  the  Reign  of  our  Sovereign  Lord  King 
George."  And  it  was  for  rebellion  and  trea- 
son against  his  Majesty  that  this  convict, 
Alexander  MacQueen,  was  taken  in  Lanca- 
shire and  transported  to  America,  and  sold 
to  Mr.  Daniel  Sherwood  for  seven  years  of 
service.  With  him  were  transported  two 
shiploads  of  fellow-culprits,  Jacobites,  on  the 
Friendship  and  Goodspeed.  The  London 
Public  Record  Office  (on  American  and  West 
India  matters,  No.  27)  records  this  transpor- 
tation and  says  the  men  were  "  Scotts  Reb- 
ells."  Earlier  still,  many  of  the  rebels  of 
Monmouth's  rebellion  had  been  sold  for 

transportation, 


10  COLONIAL  DAMES  AND  GOODWIVES. 

transportation,  and  the  ladies  of  the  court 
of  James  had  eagerly  snatched  at  the  profits 
of  the  sale.  Even  William  Penn  begged  for 
twenty  of  these  rebels  for  the  Philadelphia 
market.  Perhaps  he  was  shrewd  enough  to 
see  in  them  good  stock  for  successful  citi- 
zens. Were  the  convict  a  condemned  crimi- 
nal, it  did  not  necessarily  follow  that  he  or 
she  was  thoroughly  vicious.  One  English 
husband  is  found  petitioning  on  behalf  of 
his  wife,  sentenced  to  death  for  stealing  but 
three  shillings  and  sixpence,  that  her  sen- 
tence be  changed  to  transportation  to  Vir- 
ginia. 

The  redemptioners  were  willing  immi- 
grants, who  contracted  to  serve  for  a  period 
of  time  to  pay  the  cost  of  their  passage, 
which  usually  had  been  prepaid  to  the  mas- 
ter of  the  ship  on  which  they  came  across- 
seas.  At  first  the  state  of  these  free-willers 
was  not  unbearable.  Alsop,  who  was  a  re- 
demptioner,  has  left  on  record  that  the  work 
required  was  not  excessive :  — 

Five  dayes  and  a  halfe  in  the  summer  is  the 
allotted  time  that  they  worke,  and  for  two  months, 
when  the  Sun  is  predominate  in  the  highest  pitch 
of  his  heat,  they  claim  an  antienf  and  customary 

Priviledge 


CONSORTS  AND  KELICTS.  II 

Priviledge  to  repose  themselves  three  hours  in 
the  day  within  the  house.  In  Winter  they  do 
little  but  hunt  and  build  fires. 

and  he  adds,  "  the  four  years  I  served  there 
were  not  to  me  so  slavish  as  a  two-year's 
servitude  of  a  handicraft  apprenticeship  in 
London." 

Many  examples  can  be  given  where  these 
redemptioners  rose  to  respected  social  posi- 
tions. In  1654,  in  the  Virginia  Assembly 
were  two  members  and  one  Burgess  who  had 
been  bond-servants.  Many  women-servants 
married  into  the  family  of  their  employers. 
Alsop  said  it  was  the  rule  for  them  to  marry 
well.  The  niece  of  Daniel  Defoe  ran  away 
to  escape  a  marriage  entanglement  in  Eng- 
land, sold  herself  on  board  ship  as  a  redemp- 
tioner  when  but  eighteen  years  old,  was 
bought  by  a  Mr.  Job  of  Cecil  County,  Mary- 
land, and  soon  married  her  employer's  son. 
Defoe  himself  said  that  so  many  good  maid- 
servants were  sold  to  America  that  there  was 
a  lack  for  domestic  service  in  England. 

Through  the  stealing  of  children  and 
youths  to  sell  in  the  plantations,  it  can 
plainly  be  seen  that  many  a  wife  of  respect- 
able birth  was  furnished  to  the  colonists. 

This 


12      COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

This  trade,  by  which,  as  Lionel  Gatford 
wrote  in  1657,  young  people  were  "  cheat  - 
ingly  duckoyed  by  Poestigeous  Plagiaries," 
grew  to  a  vast  extent,  and  in  it,  emulating 
the  noble  ladies  of  the  court,  women  of 
lower  rank  sought  a  degrading  profit. 

In  1655,  in  Middlesex,  England,  one  Chris- 
tian Sacrett  was  called  to  answer  the  com- 
plaint of  Dorothy  Perkins  :  — 

She  accuseth  her  for  a  spirit,  one  that  takes 
upp  men  women  and  children,  and  sells  them 
a-shipp  to  be  conveyed  beyond  the  sea,  having 
indeed  and  inveigled  one  Edward  Furnifall  and 
Anna  his  wife  with  her  infant  to  the  waterside, 
and  putt  them  aboard  the  ship  called  the  Planter 
to  be  conveied  to  Virginia. 
Sarah  Sharp  was  also  asserted  to  be  a 
"common  taker  of  children  and  setter  to 
Betray  young  men  and  maydens  to  be  con- 
veyed to  ships." 

The  life  of  that  famous  rogue,  Bamfylde- 
Moore  Carew,  shows  the  method  by  which 
servants  were  sold  in  the  plantations.  The 
captain,with  his  cargo  of  trapanned  English- 
men, among  whom  was  Carew,  cast  anchor 
at  Miles  River  in  Talbot  County,  Maryland, 
ordered  a  gun  to  be  fired,  and  a  hogshead 

of 


CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS.  13 

of  rum  sent  on  board.  On  the  day  of  the 
sale  the  men  prisoners  were  all  shaved,  the 
women  dressed  in  their  best  garments,  their 
neatest  caps,  and  brought  on  deck.  Each 
prisoner,  when  put  up  for  sale,  told  his 
trade.  Carew  said  he  was  a  good  rat-catcher, 
beggar,  and  dog-trader,  "  upon  which  the 
Captain  hearing  takes  the  planter  aside,  and 
tells  him  he  did  but  jest,  being  a  man  of 
humour,  and  would  make  an  excellent  school- 
master." Carew  escaped  before  being  sold, 
was  captured,  whipped,  and  had  a  heavy 
iron  collar,  "called  in  Maryland  a  pot-hook," 
riveted  about  his  neck ;  but  he  again  fled 
to  the  Indians,  and  returned  to  England. 
Kidnapped  in  Bristol  a  second  time,  he  was 
nearly  sold  on  Kent  Island  to  Mr.  Dulaney, 
but  again  escaped.  He  stole  from  a  house 
"jolly  cake,  powell,  a  sort  of  Indian  corn 
bread,  and  good  omani,  which  is  kidney  beans 
ground  with  Indian  corn,  sifted,  put  into  a 
pot  to  boil,  and  eaten  with  molasses."  Jolly 
cake  was  doubtless  johnny  cake;  omani, 
hominy ;  but  powell  is  a  puzzle.  He  made 
his  way  by  begging  to  Boston,  and  shipped 
to  England,  from  whence  he  was  again  tra- 
panned. 

In 


14     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

In  the  Sot-Weed  Factor  are  found  some 
very  coarse  but  graphic  pictures  of  the  wo- 
men emigrants  of  the  day.  When  the  factor 
asks  the  name  of  "  one  who  passed  for  cham- 
bermaid "  in  one  planter's  house  in  "  Mary- 
Land,"  she  answered  with  an  affected  blush 
and  simper :  — 

In  better  Times,  ere  to  this  Land 

I  was  unhappily  Trapanned, 

Perchance  as  well  I  did  appear 

As  any  lord  or  lady  here. 

Not  then  a  slave  for  twice  two  year. 

My  cloaths  were  fashionably  new, 

Nor  were  my  shifts  of  Linnen  blue ; 

But  things  are  changed,  now  at  the  Hoe 

I  daily  work,  and  barefoot  go. 

In  weeding  corn,  or  feeding  swine, 

I  spend  my  melancholy  time. 

Kidnap'd  and  fool'd  I  hither  fled, 

To  shun  a  hated  nuptial  Bed. 

And  to  my  cost  already  find 

Worse  Plagues  than  those  I  left  behind. 

Another  time,  being  disturbed  in  his  sleep, 
the  factor  finds  that  in  an  adjoining  room,  — 

...  a  jolly  Female  Crew 
Were  Deep  engaged  in  Lanctie  Loo. 

Soon  quarreling  over  their  cards,  the  plant- 
ers' wives  fall  into  abuse,  and  one  says  scorn- 
fully to  the  other :  — 

.  tho 


CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS.  1$ 

.  .  .  tho  now  so  brave, 
I  knew  you  late  a  Four  Years  Slave, 
What  if  for  planters  wife  you  go, 
Nature  designed  you  for  the  Hoe. 

The  other  makes,  in  turn,  still  more  bitter 
accusations.  It  can  plainly  be  seen  that  such 
social  and  domestic  relations  might  readily 
produce  similar  scenes,  and  afford  opportu- 
nity for  "  crimination  and  recrimination." 

Still  we  must  not  give  the  Sot-Weed 
Factor  as  sole  or  indeed  as  entirely  unbiased 
authority.  The  testimony  to  the  house- 
wifely virtues  of  the  Maryland  women  by 
other  writers  is  almost  universal.  In  the 
London  Magazine  of  1745  a  traveler  writes, 
and  his  word  is  similar  to  that  of  many 
others :  — 

The  women  are  very  handsome  in  general 
and  most  notable  housewives  ;  everything  wears 
the  Marks  of  Cleanliness  and  Industry  in  their 
Houses,  and  their  behavior  to  their  Husbands 
and  Families  is  very  edifying.  You  cant  help 
observing,  however,  an  Air  of  Reserve  and  some- 
what that  looks  at  first  to  a  Stranger  like  Unsoci- 
ableness,  which  is  barely  the  effect  of  living  at  a 
great  Distance  from  frequent  Society  and  their 
Thorough  Attention  to  the  Duties  of  their  Sta- 
tions. 


16     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND  GOOD  WIVES. 

tions.  Their  Amusements  are  quite  Innocent 
and  within  the  Circle  of  a  Plantation  or  two. 
They  exercise  all  the  Virtues  that  can  raise  Ones 
Opinion  of  too  light  a  Sex. 

The  girls  under  such  good  Mothers  generally 
have  twice  the  Sense  and  Discretion  of  the  Boys. 
Their  Dress  is  neat  and  Clean  and  not  much 
bordering  upon  the  Ridiculous  Humour  of  the 
Mother  Country  where  the  Daughters  seem 
Dress'd  up  for  a  Market. 

Wives  were  just  as  eagerly  desired  in  New 
England  as  in  Virginia,  and  a  married  estate 
was  just  as  essential  to  a  man  of  dignity.  As 
a  rule,  emigration  thereto  was  in  families, 
but  when  New  England  men  came  to  the 
New  World,  leaving  their  families  behind 
them  until  they  had  prepared  a  suitable 
home  for  their  reception,  the  husbands  were 
most  impatient  to  send  speedily  for  their 
consorts.  Letters  such  as  this,  of  Mr.  Eyre 
from  England  to  Mr.  Gibb  in  Piscataquay, 
in  1631,  show  the  sentiment  of  the  settlers 
in  the  matter :  — 

I  hope  by  this  both  your  wives  are  with  you 
according  to  your  desire.  I  wish  all  your  wives 
were  with  you,  and  that  so  many  of  you  as  desire 
wives  had  such  as  they  desire.  Your  wife,  Roger 

Knight's 


CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS.  I? 

Knight's  wife,  and  one  wife  more  we  have  already 
sent  you  and  more  you  shall  have  as  you  wish 
for  them. 

This  sentence,  though  apparently  polyga- 
mous in  sentiment,  does  not  indicate  an  in- 
tent to  establish  a  Mormon  settlement  in 
New  Hampshire,  but  is  simply  somewhat 
shaky  in  grammatical  construction,  and  erra- 
tic in  rhetorical  expression. 

Occasionally,  though  rarely,  there  was 
found  a  wife  who  did  not  long  for  a  New 
England  home.  Governor  Winthrop  wrote 
to  England  on  July  4,  1632  :  — 

I  have  much  difficultye  to  keepe  John  Gal- 
lope  heere  by  reason  his  wife  will  not  come.  I 
marvayle  at  her  womans  weaknesse,  that  she  will 
live  myserably  with  her  children  there  when  she 
might  live  comfortably  with  her  husband  here. 
I  pray  perswade  and  further  her  coming  by  all 
means.  If  she  will  come  let  her  have  the  re- 
mainder of  his  wages,  if  not  let  it  be  bestowed  to 
bring  over  his  children  for  soe  he  desires. 

Even  the  ministers'  wives  did  not  all  sigh 
for  the  New  World.  The  removal  of  Rev. 
Mr.  Wilson  to  New  England  "  was  rendered 
difficult  by  the  indisposition  of  his  dearest 

consort 


1 8     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

consort  thereto."  He  very  shrewdly  inter- 
preted a  dream  to  her  in  favor  of  emigration, 
with  but  scant  and  fleeting  influence  upon 
her,  and  he  sent  over  to  her  from  America 
encouraging  accounts  of  the  new  home,  and 
he  finally  returned  to  England  for  her,  and 
after  much  fasting  and  prayer  she  consented 
to  "accompany  him  over  an  ocean  to  a 
wilderness." 

Margaret  Winthrop,  that  undaunted  yet 
gentle  woman,  wrote  of  her  at  this  date  (and 
it  gives  us  a  glimpse  of  a  latent  element  of 
Madam  Winthrop's  character),  "  Mr.  Wilson 
cannot  yet  persuade  his  wife  to  go,  for  all  he 
hath  taken  this  pains  to  come  and  fetch  her. 
I  marvel  what  mettle  she  is  made  of.  Sure 
she  will  yield  at  last."  She  did  yield,  and 
she  did  not  go  uncomforted.  Cotton  Mather 
wrote :  — 

Mrs.  Wilson  being  thus  perswaded  over  into 
the  difficulties  of  an  American  desart,  her  kins- 
man Old  Mr.  Dod,  for  her  consolation  under 
those  difficulties  did  send  her  a  present  with  an 
advice  which  had  in  it  something  of  curiosity. 
He  sent  her  a  brass  counter,  a  silver  crown,  and 
a  gold  jacobus,  all  severally  wrapped  up ;  with 
this  instruction  unto  the  gentleman  who  carried 

it; 


CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS.  19 

it;  that  he  should  first  of  all  deliver  only  the 
counter,  and  if  she  received  it  with  any  shew  of 
discontent,  he  should  then  take  no  notice  of  her  j 
but  if  she  gratefully  resented  that  small  thing  for 
the  sake  of  the  hand  it  came  from,  he  should 
then  go  on  to  deliver  the  silver  and  so  the  gold, 
but  withal  assure  her  that  such  would  be  the  dis- 
pensations to  her  and  the  good  people  of  New 
England.  If  they  would  be  content  and  thank- 
ful with  such  little  things  as  God  at  first  bestowed 
upon  them,  they  should,  in  time,  have  silver  and 
gold  enough.  Mrs.  Wilson  accordingly  by  her 
cheerful  entertainment  of  the  least  remembrance 
from  good  old  Mr.  Dod,  gave  the  gentleman 
occasion  to  go  through  with  his  whole  present 
and  the  annexed  advice. 

We  could  not  feel  surprised  if  poor  home- 
sick, heartsick,  terrified  Mrs.  Wilson  had 
"gratefully  resented"  Mr.  Dod's  apparently 
mean  gift  to  her  on  the  eve  of  exile  in  our 
modern  sense  of  resentment ;  but  the  mean- 
ing of  resent  in  those  days  was  to  perceive 
with  a  lively  sense  of  pleasure.  I  do  not 
know  whether  this  old  Mr.  Dod  was  the  poet 
whose  book  entitled  A  Posie  from  Old  Mr. 
Dods  Garden  was  one  of  the  first  rare  books 
of  poetry  printed  in  New  England  in  colonial 
days. 

We 


2O     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

We  truly  cannot  from  our  point  of  view 
"  marvayle  "  that  these  consorts  did  not  long 
to  come  to  the  strange,  sad,  foreign  shore, 
but  wonder  that  they  were  any  of  them  ever 
willing  to  come ;  for  to  the  loneliness  of  an 
unknown  world  was  added  the  dread  horror 
of  encounter  with  a  new  and  almost  myste- 
rious race,  the  blood-thirsty  Indians,  and  if 
the  poor  dames  turned  from  the  woods  to 
the  shore,  they  were  menaced  by  "  murther- 
ing  pyrates." 

Gurdon  Saltonstall,  in  a  letter  to  John 
Winthrop  of  Connecticut,  as  late  as  1690, 
tells  in  a  few  spirited  and  racy  sentences  of 
the  life  the  women  lead  in  an  unprotected 
coast  town.  It  was  sad  and  terrifying  .in 
reality,  but  there  is  a  certain  quaintness  of 
expression  and  metaphor  in  the  narrative, 
and  a  sly  and  demure  thrusting  at  Mr.  James, 
that  give  it  an  element  of  humor.  It  was 
written  of  the  approach  of  a  foe  "whose 
entrance  was  as  formidable  and  swaggering 
as  their  exit  was  sneaking  and  shamefull." 
Saltonstall  says :  — 

My  Wife  &  family  was  posted  at  your  Hon™ 
a  considerable  while,  it  being  thought  to  be  ye 
most  convenient  place  for  ye  feminine  Rendez- 
vous. 


CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS.  21 

vous.  Mr  James  who  Commands  in  Chiefe 
among  them,  upon  ye  coast  alarum  given,  faceth 
to  ye  Mill,  gathers  like  a  Snow  ball  as  he  goes, 
makes  a  Generall  Muster  at  yor  Honrs,  and  so 
posts  away  with  ye  greatest  speed,  to  take  advan- 
tage of  ye  neighboring  rocky  hills,  craggy,  inac- 
cessible mountains;  so  that  W'ever  els  is  lost 
Mr  James  and  ye  Women  are  safe. 

All  women  did  not  run  at  the  approach 
of  the  foe.  A  marked  trait  of  the  settlers' 
wives  was  their  courage  ;  and,  indeed,  oppor- 
tunities were  plentiful  for  them  to  show  their 
daring,  their  fortitude,  and  their  ready  in- 
genuity. Hannah  Bradley,  of  Haverhill, 
Mass.,  killed  one  Indian  by  throwing  boiling 
soap  upon  him.  This  same  domestic  weapon 
was  also  used  by  some  Swedish  women  near 
Philadelphia  to  telling,  indeed  to  killing 
advantage.  A  young  girl  in  the  Minot 
House  in  Dorchester,  Mass.,  shovelled  live 
coals  on  an  Indian  invader,  and  drove  him 
off.  A  girl,  almost  a  child,  in  Maine,  shut  a 
door,  barred,  and  held  it  while  thirteen  women 
and  children  escaped  to  a  neighboring  block- 
house before  the  door  and  its  brave  defender 
were  chopped  down.  Anthony  Bracket  and 
his  wife,  captured  by  savages,  escaped  through 

the 


22      COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

the  wife's  skill  with  the  needle.  She  liter- 
ally sewed  together  a  broken  birch-bark  canoe 
which  they  found,  and  in  which  they  got 
safely  away.  Most  famous  and  fierce  of  all 
women  fighters  was  Hannah  Dustin,  who,  in 
1697,  with  another  woman  and  a  boy,  killed 
ten  Indians  at  midnight,  and  started  for 
home ;  but,  calling  to  mind  a  thought  that 
no  one  at  home,  without  corroborative  evi- 
dence, would  believe  this  extraordinary  tale, 
they  returned,  scalped  their  victims,  and 
brought  home  the  bloody  trophies  safely  to 
HaverhUl. 

Some  Englishwomen  were  forced  to  marry 
their  captors,  forced  by  torture  or  dire  dis- 
tress. Some,  when  captured  in  childhood, 
learned  to  love  their  savage  husbands. 
Eunice  Williams,  daughter  of  the  Deerfield 
minister,  a  Puritan  who  hated  the  Indians 
and  the  church  of  Rome  worse  than  he  hated 
Satan,  came  home  to  her  Puritan  kinsfolk 
wearing  two  abhorred  symbols,  a  blanket 
and  crucifix,  and  after  a  short  visit,  not  lik- 
ing a  civilized  life,  returned  to  her  Indian 
brave,  her  wigwam,  and  her  priest. 

I  have  always  been  glad  that  it  was  my 
far-away  grandfather,  John  Hoar,  who  left 

his 


CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS.  2$ 

his  Concord  home,  and  risked  his  life  as 
ambassador  to  the  Indians  to  rescue  one  of 
these  poor  "  captivated  "  English  wives,  Mrs. 
Mary  Rowlandson,  after  her  many  and  heart- 
rending "savage  removes."  I  am  proud  of 
his  "very  forward  spirit"  which  made  him 
dare  attempt  this  bold  rescue,  as  I  am  proud 
of  his  humanity  and  his  intelligent  desire  to 
treat  the  red  men  as  human  beings,  furnish- 
ing about  sixty  of  them  with  a  home  and 
decent  civilizing  employment.  I  picture  him 
"  stoutly  not  afraid,"  as  he  entered  the  camp, 
and  met  the  poor  captive,  and  treated  suc- 
cessfully with  her  savage  and  avaricious 
master,  and  then  I  see  him  tenderly  leading 
her,  ragged,  half-starved,  and  exhausted, 
through  the  lonely  forests  home  —  home  to 
the  "  doleful  solemn  sight "  of  despoiled 
Lancaster.  And  I  am  proud,  too,  of  the 
noble  "Boston  gentlewomen"  who  raised 
twenty  pounds  as  a  ransom  for  Mary  Row- 
landson, "  the  price  of  her  redemption,"  and 
tenderly  welcomed  her  to  their  homes  and 
hearts,  so  warmly  that  she  could  write  of 
them  as  "pitiful,  tender-hearted,  and  com- 
passionate Christians,"  whose  love  was  so 
bountiful  that  she  could  not  declare  it.  If 

any 


24     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

any  one  to-day  marvels  that  English  wives 
did  not  "  much  desire  the  new  and  doleful 
land,"  let  them  read  this  graphic  and  thrill- 
ing story  of  the  Captivity,  Removes,  and  Re- 
stauration  of  Mary  Rowlandson,  and  he  will 
marvel  that  the  ships  were  not  crowded 
with  disheartened  settlers  returning  to  their 
"faire  English  homes." 

A  very  exciting  and  singular  experience 
befell  four  dignified  Virginian  wives  in  Ba- 
con's Rebellion,  not  through  the  Indians 
but  at  the  hands  of  their  erstwhile  friends. 
It  is  evident  that  the  women  of  that  colony 
i  were  universally  arid  deeply  stirred  by  the 
romance  of  this  insurrection  and  war.  We 
hear  of  their  dramatic  protests  against  the 
tyranny  of  the  government.  Sarah  Drum- 
mond  vowed  she  feared  the  power  of  Eng- 
land no  more  than  a  broken  straw,  and 
contemptuously  broke  a  stick  of  wood  to 
illustrate  her  words.  Major  Chriesman's 
wife,  "  the  honor  of  her  sex,"  when  her  hus- 
band was  about  to  be  put  to  death  as  a 
rebel,  begged  Governor  Berkeley  to  kill  her 
instead,  as  he  had  joined  Bacon  wholly  at  her 
solicitation.  One  Ann  Cotton  was  moved 
by  the  war  to  drop  into  literary  composition, 

an 


CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS.  2$ 

an  extraordinary  ebullition  for  a  woman  in 
her  day,  and  to  write  an  account  of  the 
Rebellion,  as  she  deemed  "too  wordishly," 
but  which  does  not  read  now  very  wordishly 
to  us.  But  for  these  four  dames,  the  wives 
of  men  prominent  in  the  army  under  Gover- 
nor Berkeley  —  prime  men,  Ann  Cotton  calls 
them  —  was  decreed  a  more  stirring  partici- 
pation in  the  excitements  of  war.  The  bril- 
liant and  erratic  young  rebel,  Bacon,  pressed 
them  into  active  service.  He  sent  out 
companies  of  horsemen  and  tore  the  gentle- 
women from  their  homes,  though  they  re- 
monstrated with  much  simplicity  that  they 
were  "  indisposed  "  to  leave ;  and  he  brought 
them  to  the  scene  of  battle,  and  heartlessly 
placed  them — with  still  further  and  more 
acute  indisposition  —  on  the  "  fore-front  " 
of  the  breastworks  as  a  shield  against  the 
attacks  of  the  four  distracted  husbands  with 
their  soldiers.  We  read  that  "  the  poor  Gen- 
tlewomen were  mightily  astonished  at  this 
project ;  neather  were  their  husbands  void  of 
amazements  at  this  subtill  invention."  The 
four  dames  were  "  exhibited  to  the  view  of 
their  husbands  and  ffriends  in  the  towne 
upon  the  top  of  the  smalle  worke  he  had 

cast 


26     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

cast  up  in  the  night  where  he  caused  them 
to  tarey  till  he  had  finished  his  defence 
against  the  enemy's  shott."  There  stood 
these  four  innocent  and  harmless  wives, — 
"  guardian  angells  —  the  white  gardes  of  the 
Divell,"  shivering  through  the  chill  Septem- 
ber night  till  the  glimmering  dawn  saw  com- 
pleted the  rampart  of  earth  and  logs,  or  the 
leaguer,  as  it  was  called  by  the  writers  with 
that  exactness  and  absolute  fitness  of  expres- 
sion which,  in  these  old  chronicles,  gives 
such  delight  to  the  lover  of  good  old  Eng- 
lish. One  dame  was  also  sent  to  her  hus- 
band's camp  as  a  "  white-aproned  hostage  " 
to  parley  with  the  Governor.  And  this  hid- 
ing of  soldiers  behind  women  was  done  by 
the  order  of  one  who  was  called  the  most 
accomplished  gentleman  in  Virginia,  but 
whom  we  might  dub  otherwise  if  we  wished, 
to  quote  the  contemporary  account,  to  "  op- 
pose him  further  with  pertinances  and  vio- 
lent perstringes." 

I  wish  I  could  truthfully  say  that  one 
most  odious  and  degrading  eighteenth  cen- 
tury English  custom  was  wholly  unknown 
in  America —  the  custom  of  wife-trading,  the 
selling  by  a  husband  of  his  wife  to  another 

man. 


CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS.  2/ 

man.  I  found,  for  a  long  time,  no  traces  or 
hints  of  the  existence  of  such  a  custom  in 
the  colonies,  save  in  two  doubtful  cases.  I 
did  not  wholly  like  the  aspect  of  Governor 
Winthrop's  note  of  the  suggestion  of  some 
members  of  the  church  in  Providence,  that 
if  Goodman  Verin  would  not  give  his  wife 
full  liberty  to  go  to  meeting  on  Sunday 
and  weekly  lectures  as  often  as  she  wished, 
"the  church  should  dispose  her  to  some 
other  man  who  would  use  her  better."  I 
regarded  this  suggestion  of  the  Providence 
Christians  with  shocked  suspicion,  but  calmed 
myself  with  the  decision  that  it  merely  indi- 
cated the  disposition  of  Goodwife  Verin  as 
a  servant.  And  again,  in  the  records  of  the 
"Pticuler  Court"  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  in 
1645,  I  discovered  this  entry :  "  Baggett 
Egleston  for  bequething  his  wyfe  to  a  young 
man  is  fyned  20  shillings."  Now,  any  reader 
can  draw  his  conclusions  as  to  exactly  what 
this  "  bequething  "  was,  and  I  cannot  see  that 
any  of  us  can  know  positively.  So,  though 
I  was  aware  that  Baggett  was  not  a  very  re 
putable  fellow,  I  chose  to  try  to  persuade 
myself  that  this  exceedingly  low-priced  be- 
queathing did  not  really  mean  wife-selling. 

But 


28     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

But  just  as  I  was  "  setting  down  satysfyed  " 
at  the  superiority  in  social  ethics  and  moral- 
ity of  our  New  England  ancestors,  I  chanced, 
while  searching  in  the  Boston  Evening  Post 
of  March  15,  1736,  for  the  advertisement  of 
a  sermon  on  the  virtues  of  our  forbears,  en- 
titled New  England  Tears  and  Fears  of  Eng- 
lands  Dolours  and  Horrours,  to  find  instead, 
by  a  malicious  and  contrary  fate,  this  bit  of 
unwelcome  and  mortifying  news  not  about 
old  England  but  about  New  England's  "  do- 
lours and  horrours." 

Boston.  The  beginning  of  last  Week  a  pretty 
odd  and  uncommon  Adventure  happened  in  this 
Town,  between  2  Men  about  a  certain  woman, 
each  one  claiming  her  as  his  Wife,  but  so  it  was, 
that  one  of  them  had  actually  disposed  of  his 
Right  in  her  to  the  other  for  Fifteen  Shillings 
this  Currency,  who  had  only  paid  ten  of  it  in 
part,  and  refus'd  to  pay  the  other  Five,  inclining 
rather  to  quit  the  Woman  and  lose  his  Earnest ; 
but  two  Gentlemen  happening  to  be  present, 
who  were  Friends  to  Peace,  charitably  gave  him 
half  a  Crown  a  piece,  to  enable  him  to  fulfil  his 
Agreement,  which  the  Creditor  readily  took,  and 
gave  the  Woman  a  modest  Salute,  wishing  her 
well,  and  his  Brother  Sterling  much  Joy  of  his 
Bargain. 

The 


CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS.  2$ 

The  meagre  sale-money,  fifteen  shillings, 
was  the  usual  sum  which  changed  hands  in 
England  at  similar  transactions,  though  one 
dame  of  high  degree  was  sold  for  a  hundred 
guineas.  In  1858  the  Stamford  Mercury 
gave  an  account  of  a  contemporary  wife-sale 
in  England,  which  was  announced  through 
the  town  by  a  bellman.  The  wife  was  led  to 
the  sale  with  a  halter  round  her  neck,  and 
was  "  to  be  taken  with  all  her  faults."  I  am 
glad  to  say  that  this  base  British  husband 
was  sharply  punished  for  his  misdemeanor. 

It  seems  scarcely  credible  that  the  custom 
still  exists  in  England,  but  in  1882  a  hus- 
band sold  his  wife  in  Alfreton,  Derbyshire ; 
and  as  late  as  the  I3th  July,  1887,  Abraham 
Boothroyd,  may  his  name  be  Anathema  mara- 
natha,  sold  his  wife  Clara  at  Sheffield,  Eng- 
land, for  five  shillings. 

A  most  marked  feature  of  social  life  in 
colonial  times  was  the  belleship  of  widows. 
They  were  literally  the  queens  of  society. 
Fair  maids  had  so  little  chance  against  them, 
swains  were  so  plentiful  for  widows,  that  I 
often  wonder  whence  came  the  willing  men 
who  married  the  girls  the  first  time,  thus 
offering  themselves  as  the  sacrifice  at  the 

matrimonial 


30     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND  GOOD  WIVES. 

matrimonial  altar  through  which  the  girls 
could  attain  the  exalted  state  of  widowhood. 
Men  sighed  sometimes  in  their  callow  days 
for  the  girl  friends  of  their  own  age,  but  as 
soon  as  their  regards  were  cast  upon  a  widow, 
the  girls  at  once  disappear  from  history,  and 
the  triumphant  widow  wins  the  prize. 

Another  marked  aspect  of  this  condition 
of  society  was  the  vast  number  of  widows  in 
early  days.  In  the  South  this  was  accounted 
for  by  one  of  their  own  historians  as  being 
through  the  universally  intemperate  habits 
of  the  husbands,  and  consequently  their  fre- 
quent early  death.  In  all  the  colonies  life 
was  hard,  exposure  was  great  to  carry  on  any 
active  business,  and  the  excessive  drinking 
of  intoxicating  liquors  was  not  peculiar  to 
the  Southern  husbands  any  more  than  were 
widows.  In  1698  Boston  was  said  to  be 
"full  of  widows  and  orphans,  and  many  of 
them  very  helpless  creatures."  It  was 
counted  that  one  sixth  of  the  communicants 
of  Cotton  Mather's  church  were  widows.  It 
is  easy  for  us  to  believe  this  when  we  read 
of  the  array  of  relicts  among  which  that 
aged  but  actively  amorous  gentleman,  Judge 
Sewall,  found  so  much  difficulty  in  choosing 


CONSORTS  AND  R&LICTS.  31 

a  marriage  partner,  whose  personal  and 
financial  charms  he  recounted  with  so  much 
pleasurable  minuteness  in  his  diary. 

A  glowing  tribute  to  one  of  these  Boston 
widows  was  paid  by  that  gossiping  traveller, 
John  Dunton,  with  so  much  evidence  of  deep 
interest,  and  even  sentiment,  that  I  fancy 
Madam  Dunton  could  not  have  been  wholly 
pleased  with  the  writing  and  the  printing 
thereof.  He  called  this  Widow  Breck  the 
"flower  of  Boston,"  the  "Chosen  exemplar 
of  what  a  Widow  is."  He  extols  her  high 
character,  beauty,  and  resignation,  and  then 
bridles  with  satisfaction  while  he  says, 
"  Some  have  been  pleas'd  to  say  That  were  I 
in  a  single  state  they  do  believe  she  wou'd 
not  be  displeas'd  with  my  addresses."  He 
rode  on  horseback  on  a  long  journey  with 
his  fair  widow  on  a  pillion  behind  him,  and 
if  his  conversation  on  "Platonicks  and  the 
blisses  of  Matrimony"  was  half  as  tedious 
as  his  recounting  of  it,  the  road  must  indeed 
have  seemed  long.  He  says  her  love  for 
her  dead  husband  is  as  strong  as  death,  but 
Widow  Breck  proved  the  strength  of  her 
constancy  by  speedily  marrying  a  second 
husband,  Michael  Perry. 

As 


32     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

As  an  instance  of  the  complicated  family 
relations  which  might  arise  in  marrying 
widows,  let  me  cite  the  familiar  case  of  the 
rich  merchant,  Peter  Sergeant,  the  builder 
of  the  famous  Province  House  in  Boston.  I 
will  use  Mr.  Shurtleff's  explanation  of  this 
bewildering  gallimaufrey  of  widows  and 
.widowers :  — 

He  was  as  remarkable  in  his  marriages  as  his 
wealth ;  for  he  had  three  wives,  the  second  hav- 
ing been  a  widow  twice  before  her  third  venture ; 
and  his  third  also  a  widow,  and  even  becoming 
his  widow,  and  lastly  the  widow  of  her  third 
husband. 

To  this  I  may  add  that  this  last  husband, 
Simon  Stoddart,  also  had  three  wives,  that 
his  father  had  four,  of  whom  the  last  three 
were  widows,  —  but  all  this  goes  beyond  the 
modern  brain  to  comprehend,  and  reminds 
us  most  unpleasantly  of  the  wife  of  Bath. 

These  frequent  and  speedy  marriages  were 
not  wholly  owing  to  the  exigencies  of  colonial 
life,  but  were  the  custom  of  the  times  in 
Europe  as  well.  I  read  in  the  diary  of  the 
Puritan  John  Rous,  in  January,  1638,  of  this 
somewhat  hasty  wooing  :  — 

A  gentleman  carried  his  wife  to  London  last 

week 


CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS.  33 

week  and  died  about  eight  o'clock  at  night,  leav- 
ing her  five  hundred  pounds  a  year  in  land.  The 
next  day  before  twelve  she  was  married  to  the 
journeyman  woolen-draper  that  came  to  sell 
mourning  to  her. 

I  do  not  believe  John  Rous  made  special 
note  of  this  marriage  simply  because  it  was 
so  speedy,  but  because  it  was  unsuitable  ;  as 
a  landed  widow  was,  in  social  standing,  far 
above  a  journeyman  draper. 

As  we  approach  Revolutionary  days,  the        sx 
reign  of  widows  is  still  absolute. 

Washington  loved  at  fifteen  a  fair  un- 
known, supposed  to  be  Lucy  Grimes,  after- 
ward mother  of  Gen.  Henry  Lee.  To  her 
he  wrote  sentimental  poems,  from  which  we 
gather  (as  might  be  expected  at  that  age) 
that  he  was  too  bashful  to  reveal  his  love. 
A  year  later  he  writes  :  — 

I  might,  was  my  heart  disengaged,  pass  my  Y 
time  very  pleasantly  as  there 's  a  very  agreeable 
Young  Lady  Lives  in  the  same  house ;  but  as 
thats  only  adding  fuel  to  the  fire  it  makes  me 
more  uneasy ;  for  by  often  and  unavoidably  being 
in  Company  with  her  revives  my  former  Passion 
for  your  Lowland  Beauty ;  whereas  was  I  to  live 
more  retired  from  young  women,  I  might  in  some 


34     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

measure  eliviate  my  sorrows  by  burying  that 
chast  and  troublesome  passion  in  the  grave  of 
oblivion  or  eternal  forgetfulness. 

The  amorous  boy  of  sixteen  managed  to 
"  bury  this  chast  and  troublesome  passion," 
to  find  the  "Young  Lady  in  the  house" 
worth  looking  at,  and  when  he  was  twenty 
years  old,  to  write  to  William  Fantleroy  thus 
of  his  daughter,  Miss  Bettie  Fantleroy :  — 

I  purpose  as  soon  as  I  recover  my  strength 
(from  the  pleurisy)  to  wait  on  Miss  Bettie  in 
hopes  of  a  reconsideration  of  the  former  cruel 
sentence,  and  to  see  if  I  cannot  obtain  a  decision 
in  my  favor.  I  enclose  a  letter  to  her. 

Later  he  fell  in  love  with  Mary  Phillipse, 
who,  though  beautiful,  spirited,  and  rich,  did 
not  win  him.  This  love  affair  is  somewhat 
shadowy  in  outline.  Washington  Irving 
thinks  that  the  spirit  of  the  alert  soldier 
overcame  the  passion  of  the  lover,  and  that 
Washington  left  the  lists  of  love  for  those 
of  battle,  leaving  the  field  to  his  successful 
rival,  Colonel  Morris.  The  inevitable  widow 
in  the  shape  of  Madam  Custis,  with  two 
pretty  children  and  a  fortune  of  fifteen  thou- 
sand pounds  sterling,  became  at  last  what  he 

called 


CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS.  35 

called  his  "  agreeable  partner  for  life,"  and 
Irving  thinks  she  was  wooed  with  much  des- 
patch on  account  of  the  reverses  in  the  Phil- 
lipse  episode. 

Thomas  Jefferson  was  another  example  of 
a  President  who  outlived  his  love-affair  with 
a  young  girl,  and  married  in  serenity  a  more 
experienced  dame.  In  his  early  correspond- 
ence he  reveals  his  really  tumultuous  passion 
for  one  Miss  Becca  Burwell.  He  sighs  like 
a  furnace,  and  bemoans  his  stammering 
words  of  love,  but  fair  Widow  Martha  Skel- 
ton  made  him  eloquent.  Many  lovers  sighed 
at  her  feet ;  two  of  them  lingered  in  her 
drawing-room  one  evening  to  hear  her  sing  a 
thrilling  love-song  to  the  accompaniment  of 
Jefferson's  violin.  The  love-song  and  music 
were  so  expressive  that  the  two  disconsolate 
swains  plainly  read  the  story  of  their  fate, 
and  left  the  house  in  defeat. 

James  Madison,  supposed  to  be  an  irre- 
claimable old  bachelor,  succumbed  at  first 
sight  to  the  charms  of  fair  Widow  Dorothy 
Todd,  twenty  years  his  junior,  wooed  her 
with  warmth,  and  made  her,  as  Dolly  Madi- 
son, another  Mrs.  President.  Benjamin 
Franklin  also  married  a  widow. 

The 


36     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

The  characteristic  glamour  which  hung 
round  every  widow  encircled  Widow  Sarah 
Syms,  and  Colonel  Byrd  gives  a  spirited 
sketch  of  her  in  1732:  — 

In  the  evening  Tinsley  conducted  me  to 
Widow  Syms'  house  where  I  intended  to  take  up 
my  quarters.  This  lady  at  first  suspecting  I  was 
some  lover  put  on  a  gravity  that  becomes  a  weed, 
but  as  soon  as  she  learned  who  I  was  bright- 
ened up  with  an  unusual  cheerfulness  and  se- 
renity. She  was  a  portly  handsome  dame,  of  the 
family  of  Esau,  and  seemed  not  to  pine  too 
much  for  the  death  of  her  husband.  This  widow 
is  a  person  of  lively  and  cheerful  conversation 
with  much  less  reserve  than  most  of  her  coun- 
try women.  It  becomes  her  very  well  and  sets 
off  her  other  agreeable  qualities  to  advantage. 
We  tossed  off  a  bottle  of  honest  port  which 
we  relished  with  a  broiled  chicken.  At  nine 
I  retired  to  my  devotions,  and  then  slept  so 
sound  that  fancy  itself  was  stupefied,  else  I 
should  have  dreamed  of  my  most  obliging  land- 
lady. 

This  "  weed  "  who  did  not  pine  too  much 
for  her  husband,  soon  married  again,  and  be- 
came the  mother  of  Patrick  Henry  ;  and  the 
testimony  of  Colonel  Byrd  as  to  her  lively 

and 


CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS.  37 

and  cheerful  conversation  shows  the  heredity 
of  Patrick  Henry's  "gift  of  tongues." 

Hie !  Betty  Martin !  tiptoe  fine, 

Could  n't  get  a  husband  for  to  suit  her  mind ! 

was  a  famous  Maryland  belle,  to  whom 
came  a-courting  two  friends,  young  lawyers, 
named  Dallam  and  Winston.  It  was  a  day 
of  much  masculine  finery  and  the  two  im- 
pecunious but  amicable  friends  possessed 
but  one  ruffled  shirt  between  them,  which 
each  wore  on  courting-day.  Such  amiabil- 
ity deserved  the  reward  it  obtained,  for, 
strange  to  say,  both  suitors  won  Betty 
Martin.  Dallam  was  the  first  husband,  — 
the  sacrifice,  —  and  left  her  a  widow  with 
three  sons  and  a  daughter.  Winston  did 
likewise,  even  to  the  exact  number  of 
children.  Daughter  Dallam's  son  was  Rich- 
ard Caswell,  governor  of  South  Carolina, 
and  member  of  Congress.  Daughter  Win- 
ston's son  was  William  Paca,  governor  of 
Maryland,  and  member  of  the  Continen- 
tal Congress.  Both  grandsons  on  their  way 
to  and  from  Congress  always  visited 
their  spirited  old  grandmother,  who  lived 
to  be  some  say  one  hundred  and  twenty 
years  old. 

There 


38     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND  GOOD  WIVES. 

There  must  have  been  afforded  a  certain 
satisfaction  to  a  dying  husband  —  of  colo- 
nial times  —  through  the  confidence  that,  by 
unwavering  rule,  his  widow  would  soon  be 
cared  for  and  cherished  by  another.  There 
was  no  uncertainty  as  to  her  ultimate  settle- 
ment in  life,  and  even  should  she  be  unfor- 
tunate enough  to  lose  her  second  partner, 
he  still  had  every  reason  to  believe  that  a 
third  would  speedily  present  himself.  The 
Reverend  Jonathan  Burr  when  almost  mori- 
bund, piously  expressed  himself  to  "that 
vertuous  gentlewoman  his  wife  with  con- 
fidence "  that  she  would  soon  be  well  pro- 
vided for ;  and  she  was,  for  "  she  was  very 
shortly  after  very  honourably  and  comfort- 
ably married  unto  a  gentleman  of  good 
estate,"  a  magistrate,  Richard  Dummer,  and 
lived  with  him  nearly  forty  years.  Pro- 
visions were  always  made  by  a  man  in  his 
will  in  case  his  wife  married  again  ;  scarcely 
ever  to  remove  the  property  from  her,  but 
simply  to  re-adjust  the  division  or  condi- 
tions. And  men  often  signed  ante-nuptial 
contracts  promising  not  to  "meddle"  with 
their  wives'  property.  One  curious  law 
should  be  noted  in  Pennsylvania,  in  1690, 

that 


••<£ 

CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS.  39 

that  a  widow  could   not  marry  till  a  year 
after  her  husband's  death. 

There  seem  to  have  been  many  advan- 
tages  in  marrying  a  widow  —  she  might 
prove  a  valuable  inheritance.  The  second 
husband  appeared  to  take  a  real  pride  in  de- 
manding and  receiving  all  that  was  due  to 
the  defunct  partner.  As  an.  example  let 
me  give  this  extract  from  a  court  record. 
On  May  3ist,  1692,  the  governor  and  coun- 
cil of  Maryland  were  thus  petitioned  :  — 

James  Brown  of  St  Marys  who  married  the 
widow  and  relict  of  Thomas  Pew  deceased,  by 
his  petition  humbly  prays  allowance  for  Two 
Years  Sallary  due  to  his  Predecessor  as  Publick 
Post  employed  by  the  Courts,  as  also  for  the  use 
of  a  Horse,  and  the  loss  of  a  Servant  wholly, 
by  the  said  Pew  deputed  in  his  sickness  to  Offi- 
ciate ;  and  ran  clear  away  with  his  Horse,  some 
Clothes  &c.,  and  for  several  months  after  not 
heard  of. 

Now  we  must  not  be  over-critical,  nor 
hasty  in  judgment  of  the  manners  and  mo- 
tives of  two  centuries  ago,  but  those  days 
are  held  up  to  us  as  days  of  vast  submissive- 
ness  and  modesty,  of  patient  long-suffering, 

of 


40     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

of  ignorance  of  extortion ;  yet  I  think  we 
would  search  far,  in  these  degenerate  days, 
for  a  man  who,  having  married  a  relict,  would, 
two  years  after  his  "  Predecessor's "  death, 
have  the  colossal  effrontery  to  demand  of 
the  government  not  only  the  back  salary  of 
said  "  Predecessor,"  but  pay  for  the  use  of  a 
horse,  stolen  by  the  Predecessor's  own  ser- 
vant—  nay,  more,  for  the  value  of  the  said 
servant  who  elected  to  run  away.  Truly 
James  Brown  builded  well  when  he  chose  a 
wife  whose  departing  partner  had,  like  a 
receding  wave,  deposited  much  lucrative  silt 
on  the  matrimonial  shore,  to  be  thriftily 
gathered  in  and  utilized  as  a  bridal  dower  by 
his  not-too-sensitive  successor. 

In  fact  it  may  plainly  be  seen  that  widows 
were  life-saving  stations  in  colonial  social 
economy;  one  colonist  expressed  his  at- 
titude towards  widows  and  their  Providential 
function  as  economic  aids,  thus  : — 

Our  uncle  is  not  at  present  able  to  pay  you 
or  any  other  he  owes  money  to.  If  he  was  able 
to  pay  he  would ;  they  must  have  patience  till 
God  enable  him.  As  his  wife  died  in  mercy 
near  twelve  months  since,  it  may  be  he  may  light 
of  some  rich  widow  that  may  make  him  capable 

to 


CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS.  41 

to  pay  ;  except  God  in  this  way  raise  him  he  can- 
not pay  you  or  any  one  else. 

It  certainly  must  have  been  some  satis- 
faction to  every  woman  to  feel  within  herself 
the  possibility  of  becoming  such  a  celestial 
agent  of  material  salvation. 

I  wish  to  state,  in  passing,  that  it  is  some- 
times difficult  to  judge  as  to  the  marital 
estate  of  some  dames,  to  know  whether  they 
were  widows  at  the  time  of  the  second  mar- 
riage or  not,  for  the  prefixed  Mrs.  was  used 
indifferently  for  married  and  single  women, 
and  even  for  young  girls.  Cotton  Mather 
wrote  of  "  Mrs.  Sarah  Gerrish,  a  very  beau- 
tiful and  ingenious  damsel  seven  years  of 
age."  Rev.  Mr.  Tompson  wrote  a  funeral 
tribute  to  a  little  girl  of  six,  which  is  entitled 
and  begins  thus  :  — 

A  Neighbors  Tears  dropt  on  ye  grave  of  an 
Amiable  Virgin,  a  pleasant  Plant  cut  down  in 
the  blooming  of  her  Spring  viz ;  Mrs  Rebecka 
Sewall  Anno  Aetatis  6,  August  ye  4th  1710. 

I  saw  this  Pritty  Lamb  but  t'  other  day 
With  a  small  flock  of  Doves  just  in  my  way 
Ah  pitty  tis  Such  Prittiness  should  die 
With  rare  alliances  on  every  side. 
Had  Old  Physitians  liv'd  she  ne'er  had  died. 

The 


42     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

The  pious  old  minister  did  not  really  mean 
by  this  tribute  to  the  old-school  doctors, 
that  Mrs.  Rebecka  would  have  achieved 
earthly  immortality.  He  modestly  ends  his 
poetic  tribute  thus  :  — 

Had  you  given  warning  ere  you  pleased  to  Die 
You  might  have  had  a  Neater  Elegy. 

These  consorts  and  relicts  are  now  but 
shadows  of  the  past :  — 

their  bones  are  dust, 
Their  souls  are  with  the  saints,  I  trust 

The  honest  and  kindly  gentlemen  who  were 
their  husbands,  sounded  their  virtues  in 
diaries  and  letters  ;  godly  ministers  preached 
their  piety  in  labored  and  dry-as-dust  ser- 
mons. Their  charms  were  sung  by  colonial 
poets  in  elegies,  anagrams,  epicediums,  acros- 
tics, threnodies,  and  other  decorous  verse. 
It  was  reserved  for  a  man  of  war,  and  not  a 
very  godly  man  of  war  either,  to  paean  their 
good  sense.  Cervantes  says  that  "  womans 
counsel  is  not  worth  much,  yet  he  who  de- 
spises it  is  no  wiser  than  he  should  be." 
With  John  Underbill's  more  gallant  tribute 
to  the  counsel  of  a  consort,  we  may  fitly  end 
this  chapter. 

Myself 


CONSORTS  AND  RELICTS.  43 

Myself  received  an  arrow  through  my  coat 
sleeve,  a  second  against  my  helmet  on  the  fore- 
head ;  so  as  if  God  in  his  Providence  had  not 
moved  the  heart  of  my  wife  to  persuade  me  to 
carry  it  along  with  me  (which  I  was  unwilling  to 
do)  I  had  been  slain.  Give  me  leave  to  observe 
two  things  from  hence ;  first  when  the  hour  of 
death  is  not  yet  come,  you  see  God  useth  weak 
means  to  keep  his  purpose  unviolated  ;  secondly 
let  no  man  despise  advice  and  counsel  of  his 
wife  though  she  be  a  woman.  It  were  strange  to 
nature  to  think  a  man  should  be  bound  to  fulfil 
the  humour  of  a  woman,  what  arms  he  should 
carry ;  but  you  see  God  will  have  it  so,  that  a 
woman  should  overcome  a  man.  What  with 
Delilahs  flattery,  and  with  her  mournful  tears, 
they  must  and  will  have  their  desire,  when  the 
hand  oTGod  goes  along  in  the  matter,  and  this 
to  accomplish  his  own  will.  Therefore  let  the  \X 
clamor  be  quenched  that  I  hear  daily  in  my  ears, 
that  New  England  men  usurp  over  their  wives 
and  keep  them  in  servile  subjection.  The  coun- 
try is  wronged  in  this  matter  as  in  many  things 
else.  Let  this  precedent  satisfy  the  doubtful, 
for  that  comes  from  the  example  of  a  rude  sol- 
dier. If  they  be  so  courteous  to  their  wives  as 
to  take  their  advice  in  warlike  matters,  how 
much  more  kind  is  the  tender  affectionate  hus- 
band to  honor  his  wife  as  the  weaker  vessel. 

Yet 


44      COLONIAL  DAMES  AND    GOODWIVES. 

Yet  mistake  not.     I  say  not  they  are  bound  to 

call  their  wives  in  council,  though  they  are  bound 

to  take  their  private  advice  (so  far  as  they 

see  it  make  for  their  advantage 

and  good).     Instance 

Abraham. 


CHAPTER   II. 

WOMEN    OF   AFFAIRS. 

THE  early  history  of  Maryland  seems 
singularly  peaceful  when  contrasted 
with  that  of  other  colonies.  There  were  few 
Indian  horrors,  few  bitter  quarrels,  compar- 
atively few  petty .  off  ences.  In  spite  of  the 
influx  of  convicts,  there  was  a  notable  ab- 
sence of  the  shocking  crimes  and  equally 
shocking  punishments  which  appear  on  the 
court  records  of  other  provinces ;  it  is  also 
true  that  there  were  few  schools  and 
churches,  and  but  scanty  intellectual  activity. 
Against  that  comparatively  peaceful  back- 
ground stands  out  one  of  the  most  remarka- 
ble figures  of  early  colonial  life  in  America 
—  Margaret  Brent;  a  woman  who  seemed 
more  fitted  for  our  day  than  her  own.  She 
was  the  first  woman  in  America  to  demand 
suffrage,  a  vote,  and  representation. 

She  came  to  the  province  in  1638  with  her 
sister   Mary  (another  shrewd  and   capable 


46     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

woman),  her  two  brothers,  and  nine  other 
colonists.  The  sisters  at  once  took  up  land, 
built  manorhouses,  and  shortly  brought  over 
more  colonists;  soon  the  court-baron  and 
court-leet  were  held  at  Mary  Brent's  home, 
St.  Gabriel's  Manor,  on  old  Kent  Island. 
We  at  once  hear  of  the  sisters  as  active  in 
business  affairs,  registering  cattle  marks, 
buying  and  selling  property,  attending  with 
success  to  important  matters  for  their  bro- 
thers ;  and  Margaret  soon  signed  herself 
"Attorney  for  my  brother,  &c.,  &c.,"  and 
was  allowed  the  right  so  to  act.  The  Brents 
were  friends  and  probably  kinsfolk  of  Lord 
Baltimore,  and  intimate  friends,  also,  of  the 
governor  of  Maryland,  Leonard  Calvert. 
When  the  latter  died  in  1647,  he  appointed  by 
nuncupation  one  Thomas  Greene  as  his  suc- 
cessor as  governor,  and  Margaret  Brent  as 
his  sole  executrix,  with  the  laconic  instruc- 
tion to  "  Take  all  and  Pay  all,"  and  to  give 
one  Mistress  Temperance  Pypott  a  mare 
colt.  His  estate  was  small,  and  if  he  had 
made  Greene  executor,  and  Mistress  Mar- 
garet governor,  he  would  have  done  a  much 
more  sensible  thing ;  for  Greene  was  vacil- 
lating and  weak,  and  when  an  emergency 

arose, 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS.  47 

arose,  he  had  to  come  to  Margaret  Brent  for 
help.  The  soldiers,  who  had  assisted  the 
government  in  recent  troubles,  were  still  un- 
paid, and  Governor  Calvert  had  pledged  his 
official  word  and  the  property  of  Lord  Balti- 
more that  they  should  be  paid  in  full.  After 
his  death  an  insurrection  in  the  army  seemed 
rising,  when  Mistress  Brent  calmly  stepped 
in,  sold  cattle  belonging  to  the  Proprietary, 
and  paid  off  the  small  but  angry  army.  This 
was  not  the  only  time  she  quelled  an  incipi- 
ent mutiny.  Her  kinsman,  Lord  Baltimore, 
was  inclined  to  find  bitter  fault,  and  wrote 
"  tartly  "  when  the  news  of  her  prompt  action 
and  attendant  expenditure  reached  his  ears ; 
but  the  Assembly  sent  him  a  letter,  gallantly 
upholding  Mistress  Brent  in  her  "meddling," 
saying  with  inadvertent  humour,  that  his 
estate  fared  better  in  her  hands  than  "  any 
man  elses." 

Her  astonishing  stand  for  woman's  rights 
was  made  on  January  21,  1647-48,  two  cen- 
turies and  a  half  ago,  and  was  thus  re- 
corded :  — 

Came  Mrs  Margaret  Brent  and  requested  to 
have  vote  in  the  House  for  herself  and  voyce 
allsoe,  for  that  on  the  last  Court  $rd  January  it 

was 


48     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

was  ordered  that  the  said  Mrs  Brent  was  to  be 
looked  upon  and  received  as  his  Ldp's  Attorney. 
The  Governor  deny'd  that  the  s'd  Mrs  Brent 
should  have  any  vote  in  the  house.  And  the  s'd 
Mrs  Brent  protested  against  all  proceedings  in 
this  present  Assembly  unlesse  she  may  be  present 
and  have  vote  as  afores'd. 

With  this  protest  for  representation,  and 
demand  for  her  full  rights,  this  remarkable 
woman  does  not  disappear  from  our  ken. 
We  hear  of  her  in  1651  as  an  offender,  hav- 
ing been  accused  of  killing  wild  cattle  and 
selling  the  beef.  She  asserted  with  vigor 
and  dignity  that  the  cattle  were  her  own,  and 
demanded  a  trial  by  jury. 

And  in  1658  she  makes  her  last  curtsey 
before  the  Assembly  and  ourselves,  a  living 
proof  of  the  fallacy  of  the  statement  that 
men  do  not  like  strong-minded  women.  For 
at  that  date,  at  the  fully  ripened  age  of  fifty- 
seven,  she  appeared  as  heir  of  an  estate  be- 
queathed to  her  by  a  Maryland  gentleman  as 
a  token  of  his  love  and  affection,  and  of  his 
constant  wish  to  marry  her.  She  thus  van- 
ishes out  of  history,  in  a  thoroughly  femi- 
nine r61e,  that  of  a  mourning  sweetheart ;  yet 
standing  signally  out  of  colonial  days  as  the 

most 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS.  49 

most  clear-cut,  unusual,  and  forceful  figure 
of  the  seventeenth  century  in  Maryland. 

Another  Maryland  woman  of  force  and 
fearlessness  was  Verlinda._Stpne.  A  letter 
from  her  to  Lord  Baltimore  is  still  in  the 
Maryland  archives,  demanding  an  investiga- 
tion of  a  fight  in  Anne  Arundel  County,  in 
which  her  husband  was  wounded.  The  let- 
ter is  businesslike  enough,  but  ends  in  a 
fiery  postscript  in  which  she  uses  some  pretty 
strong  terms.  Such  women  as  these  were 
not  to  be  trifled  with  ;  as  Alsop  wrote  :  — 

All  Complemental  Courtships  drest  up  in  criti- 
cal Rarities  are  meer  Strangers  to  them.  Plain 
wit  comes  nearest  to  their  Genius,  so  that  he 
that  intends  to  Court  a  Maryland  girle,  must 
have  something  more  than  the  tautologies  of  a 
long-winded  speech  to  carry  on  his  design. 

Elizabeth  Haddon  was  another  remarkable 
woman  ;  she  founded  Haddonfield,  New  Jer- 
sey. Her  father  had  become  possessed  of  a 
tract  of  land  in  the  New  World,  and  she 
volunteered  to  come  alone  to  the  colony,  and 
settle  upon  the  land.  She  did  so  in  1701 
when  she  was  but  nineteen  years  old,  and 
conducted  herself  and  her  business  with 

judgment. 


50     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

judgment,  discretion,  and  success,  and  so 
continued  throughout  her  long  life.  She 
married  a  young  Quaker  named  Esthaugh, 
who  may  have  been  one  of  the  attractions  of 
the  New  World.  Her  idealized  story  has 
been  told  by  L.  Maria  Child  in  her  book 
The  Youthful  Emigrant. 

John  Clayton,  writing  as  early  as  1688  of 
"  Observables "  in  Virginia,  tells  of  several 
"acute  ingenious  gentlewomen  "  who  carried 
on  thriving  tobacco-plantations,  draining 
swamps  and  raising  cattle  and  buying  slaves. 
One  near  Jamestown  was  a  fig-raiser. 

In  all  the  Southern  colonies  we  find  these 
acute  gentlewomen  taking  up  tracts  of  land, 
clearing  them,  and  cultivating  their  hold- 
ings. In  the  settlement  of  Pennsylvania, 
Mary  Tewee  took  two  thousand  five  hundred 
acres  in  what  is  now  Lancaster  County.  She 
was  the  widow  of  a  French  Huguenot  gen- 
tleman, the  friend  of  William  Penn,  and  had 
been  presented  at  the  court  of  Queen  Anne. 

New  England  magistrates  did  not  encour- 
age such  independence.  In  the  early  days 
of  Salem,  "  maid-lotts  "  were  granted  to  sin- 
gle women,  but  stern  Endicott  wrote  that  it 
was  best  to  abandon  the  custom,  and  "  avoid 

all 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS.  51 

all  presedents  &  evil  events  of  granting  lotts 
vnto  single  maidens  not  disposed  of."  The 
town  of  Taunton,  Mass.,  had  an  "ancient 
maid  "  of  forty-eight  years  for  its  founder, 
one  Elizabeth  Poole ;  and  Winthrop  says  she 
endured  much  hardship.  Her  gravestone 
says  she  was  a  "  native  of  old  England  of 
good  family,  friends  and  prospects,  all  of 
which  she  left  in  the  prime  of  her  life  to  en- 
joy the  religion  of  her  conscience  in  this  dis- 
tant wilderness.  A  great  proprietor  of  the 
township  of  Taunton,  a  chief  promoter  of 
its  settlement  in  1639.  Having  employed 
the  opportunity  of  her  virgin  state  in  piety, 
liberality  and  sanctity  of  manners,  she  died 
aged  65." 

Lady  Deborah  Moody  did  not  receive  from 
the  Massachusetts  magistrates  an  over-cordial 
or  very  long-lived  welcome.  She  is  described 
as  a  "  harassed  and  lonely  widow  voluntarily 
exiling  herself  for  conscience'  sake."  Per- 
haps her  running  in  debt  for  her  Swampscott 
land  and  her  cattle  had  quite  as  much  to  do 
with  her  unpopularity  as  her  "  error  of  deny- 
ing infant  baptism."  But  as  she  paid  nine 
hundred  or  some  say  eleven  hundred  pounds 
for  that  wild  land,  it  is  no  wonder  she  was 

"  almost 


52     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

"almost  undone."  She  was  dealt  with  by 
the  elders,  and  admonished  by  the  church, 
but  she  "persisted"  and  finally  removed  to 
the  Dutch,  against  the  advice  of  all  her 
friends.  Endicott  called  her  a  dangerous 
woman,  but  Winthrop  termed  her  a  "wise 
and  anciently  religious  woman."  Among 
the  Dutch  she  found  a  congenial  home,  and, 
unmolested,  she  planned  on  her  Gravesend 
farm  a  well-laid-out  city,  but  did  not  live  to 
carry  out  her  project.  A  descendant  of  one 
of  her  Dutch  neighbors  writes  of  her  :  — 

Tradition  says  she  was  buried  in  the  north- 
west corner  of  the  Gravesend  church  yard.  Upon 
the  headstone  of  those  who  sleep  beside  her  we 
read  the  inscription  In  der  Heere  cntslapen  —  they 
sleep  in  the  Lord.  We  may  say  the  same  of  this 
brave  true  woman,  she  sleeps  in  the  Lord.  Her 
rest  has  been  undisturbed  in  this  quiet  spot 
which  she  hoped  to  make  a  great  city. 

It  seems  to  be  plain  that  the  charge  of  the 
affairs  of  Governor  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  in 
New  Haven  was  wholly  in  the  hands  of  Mrs. 
Davenport,  the  wife  of  the  minister,  Rev. 
John  Davenport.  Many  sentences  in  her 
husband's  letters  show  her  cares  for  her 
friends'  welfare,  the  variety  of  her  business 

duties 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAJRS.  53 

duties,  and  her  performance  of  them.  He 
wrote  thus  to  the  Governor  in  1658  :  — 

For  your  ground ;  my  wife  speedily,  even  the 
same  day  she  received  your  letter,  spake  with 
sundry  about  it,  and  received  this  answer,  that 
there  is  no  Indian  corne  to  be  planted  in  that 
quarter  this  yeare.  Brother  Boykin  was  willing 
to  have  taken  it,  but  saith  it  is  overrun  with  wild 
sorrell  and  it  will  require  time  to  subdue  it,  and 
put  it  into  tillage,  being  at  present  unfit  to  be  im- 
proved. Goodman  Finch  was  in  our  harbour 
when  your  letter  came,  &  my  wife  went  promptly 
downe,  and  met  with  yong  Mr  Lamberton  to 
whom  she  delivered  your  letter.  He  offered 
some  so  bad  beaver  that  my  wife  would  not  take 
it.  My  wife  spake  twise  to  him  herself.  My 
wife  desireth  to  add  that  she  received  for  you  of 
Mr  Goodenhouse  303  worth  of  beaver  &  45  in 
wampum.  She  purposeth  to  send  your  beaver  to 
the  Baye  when  the  best  time  is,  to  sell  it  for  your 
advantage  and  afterwards  to  give  you  an  account 
what  it  comes  to.  Your  letter  to  Sarjiunt  Bald- 
win my  wife  purposeth  to  carry  to  him  by  the  ist 
opportunity.  Sister  Hobbadge  has  paid  my  wife 
in  part  of  her  debt  to  you  a  bushel  of  winter 
wheate. 

The  letters  also  reveal  much  loving-kind- 
ness, much  eagerness  to  be  of  assistance, 

equal 


54     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

equal  readiness  to  welcome  new-comers,  and 
to  smooth  the  rough  difficulties  in  pioneer 
housekeeping.  Rev.  Mr.  Davenport  wrote 
in  August,  1655,  from  New  Haven  to  Gov. 
Winthrop  at  Pequot :  — 

HON'D  SIR,  —  We  did  earnestly  expect  your 
coming  hither  with  Mrs.  Winthrop  and  your  fam- 
ilie,  the  last  light  moone,  having  intelligence 
that  a  vessel  wayted  upon  you  at  Pequot  for  that 
end,  and  were  thereby  encouraged  to  provide 
your  house,  that  it  might  be  fitted  in  some 
measure,  for  your  comfortable  dwelling  in  it, 
this  winter. 

My  wife  was  not  wanting  in  her  endeavors 
to  set  all  wheeles  in  going,  all  hands  that  she 
could  procure  on  worke,  that  you  might  find  all 
things  to  your  satisfaction.  Though  she  could 
not  accomplish  her  desires  to  the  full,  yet  she 
proceeded  as  fair  as  she  could ;  whereby  many 
things  are  done  viz.  the  house  made  warme,  the 
well  cleansed,  the  pumpe  fitted  for  your  use,  some 
provision  of  wood  layed  in,  and  20  loades  will  be' 
ready,  whensoever  you  come  ;  and  sundry,  by  my 
wife's  instigation,  prepared  30  bush,  of  wheate  for 
the  present  and  sister  Glover  hath  12  Ib  of  can- 
dles ready  for  you.  My  wife  hath  also  procured 
a  maid  servant  for  you,  who  is  reported  to  be 
cleanly  and  saving,  her  mother  is  of  the  church, 

and 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS.  55 

and  she  is  kept  from  a  place  in  Connectacot 
where  she  was  much  desired,  to  serve  you.  .  .  . 

If  Mrs.  Winthrop  knew  how  wellcome  she 
will  be  to  us  she  would  I  believe  neglect  whatso- 
ever others  doe  or  may  be  forward  to  suggest  for 
her  discouragement.  Salute  her,  with  due  re- 
spect, in  my  name  and  my  wife's,  most  affec- 
tionately. 

Madam  Davenport  also  furnished  the 
rooms  with  tables  and  "  chayres,"  and  "  took 
care  of  yor  apples  that  they  may  be  kept 
safe  from  the  frost  that  Mrs.  Winthrop  may 
have  the  benefit  of  them,"  and  arranged 
to  send  horses  to  meet  them  ;  so  it  is  not 
strange  to  learn  in  a  postscript  that  the 
hospitable  kindly  soul,  who  thus  cheerfully 
worked  to  "redd  the  house,"  had  a  "paine 
in  the  soles  of  her  feet,  especially  in  the 
evening  ;  "  and  a  little  later  on  to  know  she 
was  "valetudinarious,  faint,  thirsty,  of  little 
appetite  yet  cheerful" 

/•'  All  these  examples,  and  many  others  help 
|  to  correct  one  very  popular  mistake.  It 

I  seems  to  be  universally  believed  that  the 
^\  "  business  woman  "  is  wholly  a  product  of  the 

{   nineteenth  century.    Most  emphatically  may 

\,it  be  affirmed  that  such  is  not  the  case.  I 

have 


56     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

have  seen  advertisements  dating  from  1720  to 
1800,  chiefly  in  New  England  newspapers,  of 
women  teachers,  embroiderers,  jelly-makers, 
cooks,  wax-workers,  japanners,  mantua-mak- 
erS)  —  all  truly  feminine  employments  ;  and 
also  of  women  dealers  in  crockery,  musical 
instruments,  hardware,  farm  products,  gro- 
ceries, drugs,  wines,  and  spirits,  while  Haw- 
thorne noted  one  colonial  dame  who  carried 
on  a  blacksmith-shop.  Peter  Faneuil's  ac- 
count books  show  that  he  had  accounts  in 
small  English  wares  with  many  Boston 
tradeswomen,  some  of  whom  bought  many 
thousand  pounds'  worth  of  imported  goods 
in  a  year.  Alice  Quick  had  fifteen  hundred 
pounds  in  three  months  ;  and  I  am  glad  to 
say  that  the  women  were  very  prompt  in 
payment,  as  well  as  active  in  business.  By^ 
Stamp  Act  times,  the  names  of  fivejvornen 
merchants  appear  on  the  Salem  list  of  traders 
whoTraTfded"  together  to  oppose  taxation. 

It  is  claimed  by  many  that  the  "  newspa- 
per-woman" is  a  growth  of  modern  times. 
I  give  examples  to  prove  the  fallacy  of  this 
statement.  Newspapers  of  colonial  times 
can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  been  edited,  they 
were  simply  printed  or  published,  and  all  that 

men 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS.  57 

men  did  as  newspaper-publishers,  women 
also,  and  did  well.  It  cannot  be  asserted  that 
these  women  often  voluntarily  or  primarily 
started  a  newspaper;  they  usually  assumed 
the  care  after  the  death  of  an  editor  husband, 
or  brother,  or  son,  or  sometimes  to  assist 
while  a  male  relative,  through  sickness  or 
multiplicity  of  affairs,  could  not  attend  to  his 
editorial  or  publishing  work. 

Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  examples  of 
women-publishers  may  be  found  in  the  God- 
dard  family  of  Rhode  Island.  Mrs.  Sarah 
Goddard  was  the  daughter  of  Ludowick  Up- 
dike, of  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  respected 
families  in  that  State.  She  received  an  ex- 
cellent education  "  in  both  useful  and  polite 
learning,"  and  married  Dr.  Giles  Goddard,  a 
prominent  physician  and  postmaster  of  New 
London.  After  becoming  a  widow,  she  went 
into  the  printing  business  in  Providence 
about  the  year  1765,  with  her  son,  who  was 
postmaster  of  that  town.  They  published  the 
Providence  Gazette  and  Country  Journal,  the 
only  newspaper  printed  in  Providence  be- 
fore 1775.  William  Goddard  was  dissatisfied 
with  his  pecuniary  profit,  and  he  went  to 
New  York,  leaving  the  business  wholly  with 

his 


58     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

his  mother  ;  she  conducted  it  with  much  abil- 
ity and  success  under  the  name  Sarah  God- 
dard  &  Company.  I  wish  to  note  that  she 
carried  on  this  business  not  under  her  son's 
name,  but  openly  in  her  own  behalf;  and 
when  she  assumed  the  charge  of  the  paper, 
she  printed  it  with  her  own  motto  as  the 
heading,  Vox  Populi  Vox  Dei. 

William  Goddard  drifted  to  Philadelphia, 
where  he  published  the  Pennsylvania  Chroni- 
cle for  a  short  season,  and  in  1773  he  re- 
moved to  Baltimore  and  established  himself 
in  the  newspaper  business  anew,  with  only, 
he  relates,  "  the  small  capital  of  a  single  soli- 
tary guinea."  He  found  another  energetic 
business  woman,  the  widow  Mrs.  Nicholas 
Hasselbaugh,  carrying  on  the  printing-busi- 
ness bequeathed  to  her  by  her  husband  ; 
and  he  bought  her  stock  in  trade  and  estab- 
lished The  Maryland  Journal  and  Baltimore 
Advertiser.  It  was  the  third  newspaper  pub- 
lished in  Maryland,  was  issued  weekly  at  ten 
shillings  per  annum,  and  was  a  well-printed 
sheet.  But  William  Goddard  had  another 
bee  in  his  bonnet.  A  plan  was  formed  just 
before  the  Revolutionary  War  to  abolish  the 
general  public  post-office  and  to  establish  in 

its 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS.  59 

its  place  a  complete  private  system  of  post- 
riders  from  Georgia  to  New  Hampshire. 
This  system  was  to  be  supported  by  private 
subscription ;  a  large  sum  was  already  sub- 
scribed, and  the  scheme  well  under  way, 
when  the  war  ended  all  the  plans.  Goddard 
had  this  much  to  heart,  and  had  travelled 
extensively  through  the  colonies  exploiting 
it.  While  he  was  away  on  these  trips  he 
left  the  newspaper  and  printing-house  solely 
under  the  charge  of  his  sister  Mary  Kath- 
arine Goddard,  the  worthy  daughter  of 
her  energetic  mother.  From  1775  to  1784, 
through  the  trying  times  of  the  Revolution, 
and  in  a  most  active  scene  of  military  and 
political  troubles,  this  really  brilliant  woman 
continued  to  print  successfully  and  continu- 
ously her  newspaper.  The  Journal  and 
every  other  work  issued  from  her  printing- 
presses  were  printed  and  published  in  her 
name,  and  it  is  believed  chiefly  on  her  own 
account.  She  was  a  woman  of  much  intel- 
ligence and  was  also  practical,  being  an  ex- 
pert compositor  of  types,  and  fully  conver- 
sant with  every  detail  of  the  mechanical 
work  of  a  printing-office.  During  this  busy 
time  she  was  also  postmistress  of  Baltimore, 

and 


6O     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

and  kept  a  bookshop.  Her  brother  Wil- 
liam, through  his  futile  services  in  this  postal 
scheme,  had  been  led  to  believe  he  would  re- 
ceive under  Benjamin  Franklin  and  the  new 
government  of  the  United  States,  the  ap- 
pointment of  Secretary  and  Comptroller  of 
the  Post  Office ;  but  Franklin  gave  it  to  his 
own  son-in-law,  Richard  Bache.  Goddard, 
sorely  disappointed  but  pressed  in  money 
matters,  felt  forced  to  accept  the  position  of 
Surveyor  of  Post  Roads.  When  Franklin 
went  to  France  in  1776,  and  Bache  became 
Postmaster-General,  and  Goddard  again  was 
not  appointed  Comptroller,  his  chagrin  caused 
him  to  resign  his  office,  and  naturally  to 
change  his  political  principles. 

He  retired  to  Baltimore,  and  soon  there 
appeared  in  the  Journal  an  ironical  piece 
(written  by  a  member  of  Congress)  signed 
Tom  Tell  Truth.  From  this  arose  a  vast 
political  storm.  The  Whig  Club  of  Balti- 
more, a  powerful  body,  came  to  Miss  God- 
dard and  demanded  the  name  of  the  author ; 
she  referred  them  to  her  brother.  On  his 
refusal  to  give  the  author's  name,  he  was 
seized,  carried  to  the  clubhouse,  bullied,  and 
finally  warned  out  of  town  and  county.  He 

at 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIKS.  6 1 

at  once  went  to  the  Assembly  at  Annapolis 
and  demanded  protection,  which  was  given 
him.  He  ventilated  his  wrongs  in  a  pam- 
phlet, and  was  again  mobbed  and  insulted. 
In  17/9,  Anna  Goddard  printed  anony- 
mously in  her  paper  Queries  Political  and 
Military,  written  really  by  General  Charles 
Lee,  the  enemy  and  at  one  time  presump- 
tive rival  of  Washington.  This  paper  also 
raised  a  tremendous  storm  through  which 
the  Goddards  passed  triumphantly.  Lee 
remained  always  a  close  friend  of  William 
Goddard,  and  bequeathed  to  him  his  valu- 
able and  interesting  papers,  with  the  intent 
of  posthumous  publication ;  but,  unfortu- 
nately, they  were  sent  to  England  to  be 
printed  in  handsome  style,  and  were  instead 
imperfectly  and  incompletely  issued,  and 
William  Goddard  received  no  benefit  or 
profit  from  their  sale.  But  Lee  left  him 
also,  by  will,  a  large  and  valuable  estate  in 
Berkeley  County,  Virginia,  so  he  retired 
from  public  life  and  ended  his  days  on  a 
Rhode  Island  farm.  Anna  Katharine  God- 
dard lived  to  great  old  age.  The  story  of 
this  acquaintance  with  General  Lee,  and  of 
Miss  Goddard's  connection  therewith,  forms 


62     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

one  of  the  interesting  minor  episodes  of  the 
War. 

Just  previous  to  the  Revolution,  it  was 
nothing  very  novel  or  unusual  to  Baltimore- 
ans  to  see  a  woman  edit  a  newspaper.  The 
Maryland  Gazette  suspended  on  account  of 
the  Stamp  Act  in  1765,  and  the  printer  is- 
sued a  paper  called  The  Apparition  of  the 
Maryland  Gazette  which  is  not  Dead  but 
Sleepeth ;  and  instead  of  a  Stamp  it  bore  a 
death's  head  with  the  motto,  "  The  Times 
are  Dismal,  Doleful,  Dolorous,  Dollarless." 
Almost  immediately  after  it  resumed  pub- 
lication, the  publisher  died,  and  from  1767 
to  1775  it  was  carried  on  by  his  widow, 
Anne  Katharine  Green,  sometimes  assisted 
by  her  son,  but  for  five  years  alone.  The 
firm  name  was  Anne  Katharine  Green  & 
Son  :  and  she  also  did  the  printing  for  the 
Colony.  She  was  about  thirty-six  years  old 
when  she  assumed  the  business,  and  was 
then  the  mother  of  six  sons  and  eight  daugh- 
ters. Her  husband  was  the  fourth  genera- 
tion from  Samuel  Green,  the  first  printer  in 
New  England,  from  whom  descended  about 
thirty  ante-Revolutionary  printers.  Until 
the  Revolution  there  was  always  a  Printer 

Green 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS,  63 

Green  in  Boston.  Mr.  Green's  partner,  Wil- 
liam Rind,  removed  to  Williamsburg  and 
printed  there  the  Virginia  Gazette.  At  his 
death,  widow  Clementina  Rind,  not  to  be 
outdone  by  Widow  Green  and  Mother  and 
Sister  Goddard,  proved  that  what  woman 
has  done  woman  can  do,  by  carrying  on  the 
business  and  printing  the  Gazette  till  her 
own  death  in  1775. 

It  is  indeed  a  curious  circumstance  that, 
on  the  eve  of  the  Revolution,  so  many 
southern  newspapers  should  be  conducted  by 
women.  Long  ere  that,  from  1738  to  1740, 
Elizabeth  Timothy,  a  Charleston  woman, 
widow  of  Louis  Timothy,  the  first  librarian 
of  the  Philadelphia  Library  company,  and 
publisher  of  the  South  Carolina  Gazette, 
carried  on  that  paper  after  her  husband's 
death ;  and  her  son,  Peter  Timothy,  suc- 
ceeded her.  In  1780  his  paper  was  sus- 
pended, through  his  capture  by  the  British. 
He  was  exchanged,  and  was  lost  at  sea  with 
two  daughters  and  a  grandchild,  while  on 
his  way  to  Antigua  to  obtain  funds.  He 
had  a  varied  and  interesting  life,  was  a  friend 
of  Parson  Whitefield,  and  was  tried  with 
him  on  a  charge  of  libel  against  the  South 

Carolina 


64     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

Carolina  ministers.  In  1782  his  widow, 
Anne  Timothy,  revived  the  Gazette,  as  had 
her  mother-in-law  before  her,  and  published 
it  successfully  twice  a  week  for  ten  years 
till  her  death  in  1792.  She  had  a  large 
printing-house,  corner  of  Broad  and  King 
Streets,  Charleston,  and  was  printer  to  the 
State ;  truly  a  remarkable  woman. 

Peter  Timothy's  sister  Mary  married 
Charles  Crouch,  who  also  was  drowned  when 
on  a  vessel  bound  to  New  York.  He  was  a 
sound  Whig  and  set  up  a  paper  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  Stamp  Act,  called  The  South 
Carolina  Gazette  and  Country  Journal. 
This  was  one  of  the  four  papers  which  were 
all  entitled  Gazettes  in  order  to  secure  cer- 
tain advertisements  that  were  all  directed 
by  law  "  to  be  inserted  in  the  South  Caro- 
lina Gazette."  Mary  Timothy  Crouch  con- 
tinued the  paper  for  a  short  time  after  her 
husband's  death  ;  and  in  1780  shortly  before 
the  surrender  of  the  city  to  the  British,  went 
with  her  printing-press  and  types  to  Salem, 
where  for  a  few  months  she  printed  The 
Salem  Gazette  and  General  Advertiser.  I 
have  dwelt  at  some  length  on  the  activity 
and  enterprise  of  these  Southern  women, 

because 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS.  6$ 

because  it  is  another  popular  but  unstable      \, 
notion  that  the  women  of  the  North  were 
far  more   energetic  and   capable   than  their 
Southern  sisters  ;  which  is  certainly  not  the 
case  in  this  line  of  business  affairs. 

Benjamin  and  James  Franklin  were  not 
the  only  members  of  the  Franklin  family 
who  were  capable  newspaper-folk.  James 
Franklin  died  in  Newport  in  1735,  and  his 
widow  Anne  successfully  carried  on  the  busi- 
ness for  many  years.  She  had  efficient  aid 
in  her  two  daughters,  who  were  quick  and 
capable  practical  workers  at  the  compositor's 
case,  having  been  taught  by  their  father, 
whom  they  assisted  in  his  lifetime.  Isaiah 
Thomas  says  of  them  :  — 

A  gentleman  who  was  acquainted  with  Anne 
Franklin  and  her  family,  informed  me  that  he 
had  often  seen  her  daughters  at  work  in  the 
printing  house,  and  that  they  were  sensible  and 
amiable  women. 

We  can  well  believe  that,  since  they  had 
Franklin  and  Anne  Franklin  blood  in  them. 
This  competent  and  industrious  trio  of  women 
not  only  published  the  Newport  Mercury, 
but  were  printers  for  the  colony,  supplying 

blanks 


66     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND  GOODWIVES. 

blanks  for  public  offices,  publishing  pam- 
phlets, etc.  In  1745  they  printed  for  the  Gov- 
ernment an  edition  of  the  laws  of  the  colony 
of  340  pages,  folio.  Still  further,  they  car- 
ried on  a  business  of  "  printing  linens,  cali- 
coes, silks,  &c.,  in  figures,  very  lively  and 
durable  colors,  and  without  the  offensive 
smell  which  commonly  attends  linen-print- 
ing." Surely  there  was  no  lack  of  business 
ability  on  the  distaff  side  of  the  Franklin 
house. 

Boston  women  gave  much  assistance  to 
their  printer-husbands.  Ezekiel  Russel,  the 
editor  of  that  purely  political  publication, 
The  Censor,  was  in  addition  a  printer  of 
chap-books  and  ballads  which  were  sold  from 
his  stand  near  the  Liberty  Tree  on  Boston 
Common.  His  wife  not  only  helped  him  in 
printing  these,  but  she  and  another  young 
woman  of  his  household,  having  ready  pens 
and  a  biddable  muse,  wrote  with  celerity 
popular  and  seasonable  ballads  on  passing 
events,  especially  of  tragic  or  funereal  cast ; 
and  when  these  ballads  were  printed  with  a 
nice  border  of  woodcuts  of  coffins  and  death's 
heads,  they  often  had  a  long  and  profitable 
run  of  popularity.  After  his  death,  Widow 

Russel 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS.  67 

Russel  still  continued  ballad  making  and 
monging. 

It  was  given  to  a  woman,  Widow  Margaret 
Draper,  to  publish  the  only  newspaper  which 
was  issued  in  Boston  during  the  siege,  the 
Massachusetts  Gazette  and  Boston  News 
Letter.  And  a  miserable  little  sheet  it  was, 
vari-colored,  vari-typed,  vari-sized;  of  such 
poor  print  that  it  is  scarcely  readable.  When 
the  British  left  Boston,  Margaret  Draper  left 
also,  and  resided  in  England,  where  she  re- 
ceived a  pension  from  the  British  govern- 
ment. 

The  first  newspaper  in  Pennsylvania  was 
entitled  The  American  Weekly  Mercury.  It 
was  "  imprinted  by  Andrew  Bradford "  in 
1719.  He  was  a  son  of  the  first  newspaper 
printer  in  New  York,  William  Bradford, 
Franklin's  "  cunning  old  fox,"  who  lived  to 
be  ninety-two  years  old,  and  whose  quaint 
tombstone  may  be  seen  in  Trinity  Church- 
yard. At  Andrew's  death  in  1742,  the  paper 
appeared  in  mourning,  and  it  was  announced 
that  it  would  be  published  by  "  the  widow 
Bradford."  She  took  in  a  partner,  but  speed- 
ily dropped  him,  and  carried  it  on  in  her  own 
name  till  1746.  During  the  time  that  Cor- 
nelia 


68     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

nelia  Bradford  printed  this  paper  it  was  re- 
markable for  its  good  type  and  neatness. 

The  Connecticut  Courant  and  The  Centinel 
were  both  of  them  published  for  some  years 
by  the  widows  of  former  proprietors. 

The  story  of  John  Peter  Zenger,  the  pub- 
lisher of  The  New  York  Weekly  Journal, 
is  one  of  the  most  interesting  episodes  in 
our  progress  to  free  speech  and  liberty,  but 
cannot  be  dwelt  on  here.  The  feminine  por- 
tion of  his  family  was  of  assistance  to  him. 
His  daughter  was  mistress  of  a  famous  New 
York  tavern  that  saw  many  remarkable  vis- 
itors, and  heard  much  of  the  remarkable  talk 
of  Zenger's  friends.  After  his  death  in  1746, 
his  newspaper  was  carried  on  by  his  widow 
for  two  years.  Her  imprint  was,  "  New 
York;  Printed  by  the  Widow  Cathrine 
Zenger  at  the  Printing-Office  in  Stone 
Street;  Where  Advertisements  are  taken 
in,  and  all  Persons  may  be  supplied  with  this 
Paper." 

The  whole  number  of  newspapers  printed 
before  the  Revolution  was  not  very  large ; 
and  when  we  see  how  readily  and  success- 
fully this  considerable  number  of  women 
assumed  the  cares  of  publishing,  we  know 

that 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS.  69 

that  the  "newspaper  woman"  of  that  day 
was  no  rare  or  presumptuous  creature,  any 
more  than  is  the  "newspaper-woman"  of 
our  own  day,  albeit  she  was  of  very  different 
ilk ;  but  the  spirit  of  independent  self-reli- 
ance, when  it  became  necessary  to  exhibit 
self-reliance,  was  as  prompt  and  as  stable  in 
the  feminine  breast  a  century  and  a  half  ago 
as  now.  Then,  as  to-day,  there  were  doubt- 
less scores  of  good  wives  and  daughters  who 
materially  assisted  their  husbands  in  their 
printing-shops,  and  whose  work  will  never  be 
known. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  our  great-grand- 
mothers possessed  wonderful  ability  to  man- 
age their  own  affairs,  when  it  became  neces- 
sary to  do  so,  even  in  extended  commercial 
operations.  It  is  easy  to  trace  in  the  New 
England  coast  towns  one  influence  which 
tended  to  interest  them,  and  make  them  ca- 
pable of  business  transactions.  They  con- 
stantly heard  on  all  sides  the  discussion  of 
foreign  trade,  and  were  even  encouraged  to 
enter  into  the  discussion  and  the  traffic. 
They  heard  the  Windward  Islands,  the  Isle 
of  France,  and  Amsterdam,  and  Canton,  and 
the  coast  of  Africa  described  by  old  travelled 

mariners, 


70     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

mariners,  by  active  young  shipmasters,  in  a 
way  that  put  them  far  more  in  touch  with 
these  far-away  foreign  shores,  gave  them 
more  knowledge  of  details  of  life  in  those 
lands,  than  women  of  to-day  have.  And 
women  were  encouraged,  even  urged,  to  take 
an  active  share  in  foreign  trade,  in  commer- 
cial speculation,  by  sending  out  a  "venture" 
whenever  a  vessel  put  out  to  sea,  and  when- 
ever the  small  accumulation  of  money  earned 
by  braiding  straw,  knitting  stockings,  selling 
eggs  or  butter,  or  by  spinning  and  weaving, 
was  large  enough  to  be  worth  thus  investing ; 
and  it  needed  not  to  be  a  very  large  sum  to 
be  deemed  proper  for  investment.  When  a 
ship  sailed  out  to  China  with  cargo  of  gin- 
seng, the  ship's  owner  did  not  own  all  the 
solid  specie  in  the  hold  —  the  specie  that  was 
to  be  invested  in  the  rich  and  luxurious  pro- 
ducts of  far  Cathay.  Complicated  must  have 
been  the  accounts  of  these  transactions,  for 
many  were  the  parties  in  the  speculation. 
There  were  no  giant  monopolies  in  those 
days.  The  kindly  ship-owner  permitted  even 
his  humblest  neighbor  to  share  his  profits. 
And  the  profits  often  were  large.  The 
stories  of  some  of  the  voyages,  the  adven- 
tures 


.       WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS.  Jl 

tures  of  the  business  contracts,  read  like  a 
fairy  tale  of  commerce.  In  old  letters  may 
be  found  reference  to  many  of  the  ventures 
sent  by  women.  One  young  woman  wrote 
in  1759:  — 

Inclos'd  is  a  pair  of  Earrings  Pleas  ask 
Captin  Oliver  to  carry  them  a  Ventur  fer  me  if 
he  Thinks  they  will  fetch  anything  to  the  Vally 
of  them  ;  tell  him  he  may  bring  the  effects  in 
anything  he  thinks  will  answer  best. 

One  of  the  "effects"  brought  to  this 
young  woman,  and  to  hundreds  of  others, 
was  a  certain  acquaintance  with  business 
transactions,  a  familiarity  with  the  methods 
of  trade.  When  the  father  or  husband  died, 
the  woman  could,  if  necessary,  carry  on  his 
business  to  a  successful  winding-up,  or  con- 
tinue it  in  the  future.  Of  the  latter  enter- 
prise many  illustrations  might  be  given.  In 
the  autumn  of  1744  a  large  number  of  promi- 
nent business  men  in  Newport  went  into  a 
storehouse  on  a  wharf  to  examine  the  outfit 
of  a  large  privateer.  A  terrible  explosion  of 
gunpowder  took  place,  which  killed  nine  of 
them.  One  of  the  wounded  was  Sueton 
Grant,  a  Scotchman,  who  had  come  to  Amer- 
ica 


72     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

ica  in  1725.  His  wife,  on  hearing  of  the  acci- 
dent, ran  at  once  to  the  dock,  took  in  at  a 
glance  the  shocking  scene  and  its  demands 
for  assistance,  ',and  cutting  into  strips  her 
linen  apron  with  the  housewife's  scissors  she 
wore  at  her  side,  calmly  bound  up  the  wounds 
of  her  dying  husband.  Mr.  Grant  was  at  this 
time  engaged  in  active  business ;  he  had 
agencies  in  Europe,  and  many  privateers 
afloat.  Mrs.  Grant  took  upon  her  shoulders 
these  great  responsibilities,  and  successfully 
carried  them  on  for  many  years,  while  she  ed- 
ucated her  children,  and  cared  for  her  home. 
A  good  example  of  her  force  of  character 
was  once  shown  in  a  court  of  law.  She  had 
an  important  litigation  on  hand  and  large 
interests  at  stake,  when  she  discovered  the 
duplicity  of  her  counsel,  and  her  consequent 
danger.  She  went  at  once  to  the  court- 
room where  the  case  was  being  tried  ;  when 
her  lawyer  promptly  but  vainly  urged  her  to 
retire.  The  judge,  disturbed  by  the  inter- 
ruption, asked  for  an  explanation,  and  Mrs. 
Grant  at  once  unfolded  the  knavery  of  her 
counsel  and  asked  permission  to  argue  her 
own  case.  Her  dignity,  force,  and  lucidity 
so  moved  the  judge  that  he  permitted  her  to 

address 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS.  73 

address  the  jury,  which  she  did  in  so  con- 
vincing a  manner  as  to  cause  them  to 
promptly  render  a  verdict  favorable  to  her. 
She  passed  through  some  trying  scenes  at 
the  time  of  the  Revolution  with  wonderful 
decision  and  ability,  and  received  from  every 
one  the  respect  and  deference  due  to  a 
thorough  business  man,  though  she  was  a 
woman. 

In  New  York  the  feminine  Dutch  blood 
showed  equal  capacity  in  business  matters ; 
and  it  is  said  that  the  managemeriTbf  con- 
siderable estates  and  affairs  often  was  as- 
sumed by  widows  in  New  Amsterdam.  Twa 
noted  examples  are  Widow  De  Vries  and 
Widow  Provoost.  The  former  was  married 
in  1659,  to  Rudolphus  De  Vries,  and  after 
his  death  she  carried  on  his  Dutch  trade  — 
not  only  buying  and  selling  foreign  goods, 
but  going  repeatedly  to  Holland  in  the  posi- 
tion of  supercargo  on  her  own  ships.  She 
married  Frederick  Phillipse,  and  it  was 
through  her  keenness  and  thrift  and  her  pro- 
fitable business,  as  well  as  through  his  own 
success,  that  Phillipse  became  the  richest 
man  in  the  colony  and  acquired  the  largest 
West  Indian  trade. 

Widow 


74     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND    GOODWIVES. 

Widow  Maria  Provoost  was  equally  suc- 
cessful at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  had  a  vast  Dutch  business  cor- 
respondence. Scarce  a  ship  from  Spain, 
the  Mediterranean,  or  the  West  Indies,  but 
brought  her  large  consignments  of  goods. 
She  too  married  a  second  time,  and  as 
Madam  James  Alexander  filled  a  most  dig- 
nified position  in  New  York,  being  the  only 
person  besides  the  Governor  to  own  a  two- 
horse  coach.  Her  house  was  the  finest  in 
town,  and  such  descriptions  of  its  various 
apartments  as  "  the  great  drawing-room,  the 
lesser  drawing-room,  the  blue  and  gold 
leather  room,  the  green  and  gold  leather 
room,  the  chintz  room,  the  great  tapestry 
room,  the  little  front  parlour,  the  back  par- 
lour," show  its  size  and  pretensions. 

Madam  Martha  Smith,  widow  of  Colonel 
William  Smith  of  St.  George's  Manor,  Long 
Island,  was  a  woman  of  affairs  in  another 
field.  In  an  interesting  memorandum  left 
by  her  we  read  :  — 

Jan  ye  16,  1707.  My  company  killed  a  year- 
ling whale  made  27  barrels.  Feb  ye  4,  Indian 
Harry  with  his  boat  struck  a  whale  and  called 
for  my  boat  to  help  him.  I  had  but  a  third  which 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS.  75 

was  4  barrels.  Feb  22,  my  two  boats  &  my  sons 
and  Floyds  boats  killed  a  yearling  whale  of  which 
I  had  half  —  made  36  barrels,  my  share  18  bar- 
rels. Feb  24  my  company  killed  a  school  whale 
which  made  35  barrels.  March  13,  my  company 
killed  a  small  yearling  made  30  barrels.  March 
17,  my  company  killed  two  yearlings  in  one  day; 
one  made  27,  the  other  14  barrels. 

We  find  her  paying  to  Lord  Cornbury  fif- 
teen pounds,  a  duty  on  "ye  2Oth  part  of  her 
eyle."  And  she  apparently  succeeded  in  her 
enterprises. 

In  early  Philadelphia  directories  may  be 
found  the  name  of  "Margaret  Duncan, 
Merchant,  No.  I  S.  Water  St."  This  capa- 
ble  woman  had  been  shipwrecked  on  her 
way  to  the  new  world.  In  the  direst  hour 
of  that  extremity,  when  forced  to  draw  lots 
for  the  scant  supply  of  food,  she  vowed  to 
build  a  church  in  her  new  home  if  her  life 
should  be  spared.  The  "  Vow  Church  "  in 
Philadelphia,  on  Thirteenth  Street  near  Mar- 
ket Street,  for  many  years  proved  her  fulfil- 
ment of  this  vow,  and  also  bore  tribute  to 
the  prosperity  of  this  pious  Scotch  Presby- 
terian in  her  adopted  home. 

Southern  women  were  not  outstripped  by 

the 


76     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

the  business  women  of  the  north.  No  more 
practical  woman  ever  lived  in  America  than 
Eliza  Lucas  Pinckney.  When  a  young  girl 
she  resided  on  a  plantation  at  Wappoo, 
South  Carolina,  owned  by  her  father,  George 
Lucas.  He  was  Governor  of  Antigua,  and 
observing  her  fondness  for  and  knowledge 
of  botany,  and  her  intelligent  power  of  ap- 
plication of  her  knowledge,  he  sent  to  her 
many  tropical  seeds  and  plants  for  her 
amusement  and  experiment  in  her  garden. 
Among  the  seeds  were  some  of  indigo,  which 
she  became  convinced  could  be  profitably 
grown  in  South  Carolina.  She  at  once  de- 
termined to  experiment,  and  planted  indigo 
seed  in  March,  1741.  The  young  plants 
started  finely,  but  were  cut  down  by  an  un- 
usual frost.  She  planted  seed  a  second 
time,  in  April,  and  these  young  indigo-plants 
were  destroyed  by  worms.  Notwithstand- 
ing these  discouragements,  she  tried  a  third 
time,  and  with  success.  Her  father  was 
delighted  with  her  enterprise  and  persist- 
ence, and  when  he  learned  that  the  indigo 
had  seeded  and  ripened,  sent  an  English- 
man named  Cromwell  —  an  experienced  in- 
digo-worker—from Montserrat  to  teach  his 

daughter 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS.  JJ 

daughter  Eliza  the  whole  process  of  extract- 
ing the  dye  from  the  weed.  Vats  were  built 
on  Wappoo  Creek,  in  which  was  made  the 
first  indigo  formed  in  Carolina.  It  was  of 
indifferent  quality,  for  Cromwell  feared  the 
successful  establishment  of  the  industry  in 
America  would  injure  the  indigo  trade  in 
his  own  colony,  so  he  made  a  mystery  of  the 
process,  and  put  too  much  lime  in  the  vats, 
doubtless  thinking  he  could  impose  upon  a 
woman.  But  Miss  Lucas  watched  him  care- 
fully, and  in  spite  of  his  duplicity,  and 
doubtless  with  considerable  womanly  power 
of  guessing,  finally  obtained  a  successful 
knowledge  and  application  of  the  complex 
and  annoying  methods  of  extracting  indigo, 
—  methods  which  required  the  untiring  at- 
tention of  sleepless  nights,  and  more  "judg- 
ment "  than  intricate  culinary  triumphs. 
After  the  indigo  was  thoroughly  formed  by 
steeping,  beating,  and  washing,  and  taken 
from  the  vats,  the  trials  of  the  maker  were 
not  over.  It  must  be  exposed  to  the  sun,  but 
if  exposed  too  much  it  would  be  burnt,  if 
too  little  it  would  rot.  Myriads  of  flies  col- 
lected around  it  and  if  unmolested  would 
quickly  ruin  it.  If  packed  too  soon  it  would 

sweat 


78     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

sweat  and  disintegrate.  So,  from  the  first 
moment  the  tender  plant  appeared  above 
ground,  when  the  vast  clouds  of  destroying 
grasshoppers  had  to  be  annihilated  by  flocks 
of  hungry  chickens,  or  carefully  dislodged 
by  watchful  human  care,  indigo  culture  and 
manufacture  was  a  distressing  worry,  and 
was  made  still  more  unalluring  to  a  feminine 
experimenter  by  the  fact  that  during  the 
weary  weeks  it  laid  in  the  "  steepers  "  and 
"  beaters  "  it  gave  forth  a  most  villainously 
offensive  smell. 

Soon  after  Eliza  Lucas*  hard-earned  suc- 
cess she  married  Charles  Pinckney,  and  it  is 
pleasant  to  know  that  her  father  gave  her, 
as  part  of  her  wedding  gift,  all  the  indigo  on 
the  plantation.  She  saved  the  whole  crop 
for  seed,  —  and  it  takes  about  a  bushel  of 
indigo  seed  to  plant  four  acres,  —  and  she 
planted  the  Pinckney  plantation  at  Ashepoo, 
and  gave  to  her  friends  and  neighbors  small 
quantities  of  seed  for  individual  experiment ; 
all  of  which  proved  successful.  The  culture 
of  indigo  at  once  became  universal,  the  news- 
papers were  full  of  instructions  upon  the 
subject,  and  the  dye  was  exported  to  Eng- 
land by  1747,  in  such  quantity  that  merchants 

trading 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS.  79 

trading  in  Carolina  petitioned  Parliament  for 
a   bounty  on    Carolina   indigo.     An   act  of 
Parliament  was  passed  allowing  a  bounty  of 
sixpence  a  pound   on  indigo  raised  in  the 
British-American  plantations  and  imported 
directly  to  Great    Britain.     Spurred  on  by 
this  wise  act,  the  planters  applied  with  re- 
doubled vigor  to  the  production  of  the  article, 
and  soon  received  vast  profits  as  the  rewards 
of  their  labor  and  care.     It  is  said  that  just  ] 
previous   to  the   Revolution  more  children  ; 
were  sent  from  South  Carolina  to  England  ^7  if 
to  receive  educations,  than  from  all  the  other   t 
colonies,  —  and  this   through  the  profits  of    \ 
indigo    and     rice.      Many    indigo    planters"""" 
doubled  their  capital   every  three   or  four 
years,  and  at  last  not  only  England  was  sup- 
plied with  indigo  from   South  Carolina,  but 
the  Americans    undersold    the    French    in 
many  European   markets.     It   exceeded   all 
other  southern  industries  in  importance,  and  / 
became   a    general    medium    of    exchange. 
When  General  Marion's  young  nephew  wasL^ife 
sent  to  school  at  Philadelphia,  he  started  off 
with  a  wagon-load  of  indigo  to  pay  his  ex- 
penses.     The  annual  dues  of   the  Winyah 
Indigo  Society  of  Georgetown  were  paid  in/ 

the 


8O     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

t   the   dye,   and    the    society  had    grown   so 
"v  wealthy  in  1753,  that  it  established  a  large 

J  charity  school  and  valuable  library. 

>-  Ramsay,  the  historian  of  South  Carolina, 
wrote  in  1808,  that  the  indigo  trade  proved 
<  more  beneficial  to  Carolina  than  the  mines  of 
Mexico  or  Peru  to  old  or  new  Spain.  By 
the  year  of  his  writing,  however,  indigo 
(without  waiting  for  extermination  through 
its  modern  though  less  reliable  rivals,  the 
aniline  dyes)  had  been  driven  out  of  South- 
ern plantations  by  its  more  useful  and  pro- 
fitable field  neighbor,  King  Cotton,  that  had 
been  set  on  a  throne  by  the  invention  of  a 
Yankee  schoolmaster.  The  time  of  great- 
est production  and  export  of  indigo  was  just 
previous  to  the  Revolution,  and  at  one  time 
it  was  worth  four  or  five  dollars  a  pound. 
And  to-day  only  the  scanty  records  of  the 
indigo  trade,  a  few  rotting  cypress  boards  of 
the  steeping-vats,  and  the  blue-green  leaves 
of  the  wild  wayside  indigo,  remain  of  all 
this  prosperity  to  show  the  great  industry 
founded  by  this  remarkable  and  intelligent 
woman. 

The  rearing  of  indigo  was  not  this  young 
girl's  only  industry.     I  will  quote  from  vari- 
ous 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS.  8 1 

ous  letters  written  by  her  in  1741  and  1742 
before  her  marriage,  to  show  her  many 
duties,  her  intelligence,  her  versatility:  — 

Wrote  my  father  on  the  pains  I  had  taken  to 
bring  the  Indigo,  Ginger,  Cotton,  Lucern,  and 
Casada  to  perfection  and  had  greater  hopes  from 
the  Indigo,  if  I  could  have  the  seed  earlier,  than 
any  of  ye  rest  of  ye  things  I  had  tried. 

I  have  the  burthen  of  3  Plantations  to  trans- 
act which  requires  much  writing  and  more  busi- 
ness and  fatigue  of  other  sorts  than  you  can 
imagine.  But  lest  you  should  imagine  it  too  bur- 
then some  to  a  girl  in  my  early  time  of  life,  give 
me  leave  to  assure  you  I  think  myself  happy  that 
I  can  be  useful  to  so  good  a  father. 

Wont  you  laugh  at  me  if  I  tell  you  I  am  so 
busy  in  providing  for  Posterity  I  hardly  allow 
myself  time  to  eat  or  sleep,  and  can  but  just 
snatch  a  moment  to  write  to  you  and  a  friend  or 
two  more.  I  am  making  a  large  plantation  of 
oaks  which  I  look  upon  as  my  own  property 
whether  my  father  gives  me  the  land  or  not, 
and  therefore  I  design  many  yeer  hence  when 
oaks  are  more  valuable  than  they  are  now, 
which  you  know  they  will  be  when  we  come  to 
build  fleets.  I  intend  I  say  two  thirds  of  the 
produce  of  my  oaks  for  a  charity  (111  tell  you  my 
scheme  another  time)  and  the  other  third  for 

those 


82     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

those  that  shall  have  the  trouble  to  put  my  design 
in  execution. 

I  have  a  sister  to  instruct,  and  a  parcel  of 
little  negroes  whom  I  have  undertaken  to  teach 
to  read. 

The  Cotton,  Guinea  Corn,  and  Ginger  planted 
was  cutt  off  by  a  frost.  I  wrote  you  in  a  former 
letter  we  had  a  good  crop  of  Indigo  upon  the 
ground.  I  make  no  doubt  this  will  prove  a  valu- 
able commodity  in  time.  Sent  Gov.  Thomas 
daughter  a  tea  chest  of  my  own  doing. 

I  am  engaged  with  the  Rudiments  of  Law  to 
which  I  am  but  a  stranger.  If  you  will  not  laugh 
too  immoderately  at  me  I  '11  trust  you  with  a  Se- 
crett.  I  have  made  two  Wills  already.  I  know  I 
have  done  no  harm  for  I  conn'd  my  Lesson  per- 
fect. A  widow  hereabouts  with  a  pretty  little  for- 
tune teazed  me  intolerably  to  draw  a  marriage 
settlement,  but  it  was  out  of  my  depth  and  I  ab- 
solutely refused  it  —  so  she  got  an  able  hand  to 
do  it — indeed  she  could  afford  it  —  but  I  could 
not  get  off  being  one  of  the  Trustees  to  her  set- 
tlement, and  an  old  Gent"  the  other.  I  shall  be- 
gin to  think  myself  an  old  woman  before  I  am  a 
young  one,  having  such  mighty  affairs  on  my 
hands. 

I  think  this  record  of  important  work  could 
scarce  be  equalled  by  any  young  girl  in  a 

comparative 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS.  83 

comparative  station  of  life  nowadays.  And 
when  we  consider  the  trying  circumstances, 
the  difficult  conditions,  in  which  these  varied 
enterprises  were  carried  on,  we  can  well  be 
amazed  at  the  story. 

Indigo  was  not  the  only  important  staple 
which  attracted  Mrs.  Pinckney's  attention, 
and  the  manufacture  of  which  she  made  a 
success.  In  1755  she  carried  with  her  to 
England  enough  rich  silk  fabric,  which  she 
had  raised  and  spun  and  woven  herself  in 
the  vicinity  of  Charleston,  to  make  three  fine 
silk  gowns,  one  of  which  was  presented  to 
the  Princess  Dowager  of  Wales,  and  another 
to  Lord  Chesterfield.  This  silk  was  said  to 
be  equal  in  beauty  to  any  silk  ever  imported. 

This  was  not  the  first  American  silk  that 
had  graced  the  person  of  English  royalty. 
In  1734  the  first  windings  of  Georgia  silk 
had  been  taken  from  the  filature  to  England, 
and  the  queen  wore  a  dress  made  thereof  at 
the  king's  next  birthday.  Still  earlier  in  the 
field  Virginia  had  sent  its  silken  tribute  to 
royalty.  In  the  college  library  at  Williams- 
burg,  Va.,  may  be  seen  a  letter  signed 
"  Charles  R."  —  his  most  Gracious  Majesty 
Charles  the  Second.  It  was  written  by  his 

Majesty's 


84     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

Majesty's  private  secretary,  and  addressed  to 
Governor  Berkeley  for  the  king's  loyal  sub- 
jects in  Virginia.  It  reads  thus :  — 

Trusty  and  Well  beloved,  We  Greet  you  Well. 
Wee  have  received  w111  much  content  ye  dutifull 
respects  of  Our  Colony  in  ye  present  lately  made 
us  by  you  &  ye  councill  there,  of  ye  first  product 
of  ye  new  Manufacture  of  Silke,  which  as  a  marke 
of  Our  Princely  acceptation  of  yor  duteys  &  for 
yor  particular  encouragement,  etc.  Wee  have  been 
commanded  to  be  wrought  up  for  ye  use  of  Our 
Owne  Person. 

And  earliest  of  all  is  the  tradition,  dear  to 
the  hearts  of  Virginians,  that  Charles  I.  was 
crowned  in  1625  in  a  robe  woven  of  Virginia 
silk.  The  Queen  of  George  III.  was  the  last 
English  royalty  to  be  similarly  honored,  for 
the  next  attack  of  the  silk  fever  produced 
a  suit  for  an  American  ruler,  George  Wash- 
ington. 

The  culture  of  silk  in  America  was  an  in- 
dustry calculated  to  attract  the  attention  of 
women,  and  indeed  was  suited  to  them,  but 
men  were  not  exempt  from  the  fever ;  and 
the  history  of  the  manifold  and  undaunted 
efforts  of  governor's  councils,  parliaments, 
noblemen,  philosophers,  and  kings  to  force 

silk 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS.  8$ 

silk  culture  in  America  forms  one  of  the 
most  curious  examples  extant  of  persistent 
and  futile  efforts  to  run  counter  to  positive 
economic  conditions,  for  certainly  physical 
conditions  are  fairly  favorable. 

South  Carolina  women  devoted  themselves 
with  much  success  to  agricultural  experi- 
ments. Henry  Laurens  brought  from  Italy 
and  naturalized  the  olive-tree,  and  his  daugh- 
ter, Martha  Laurens  Ramsay,  experimented 
with  the  preservation  of  the  fruit  until  her 
productions  equalled  the  imported  olives. 
Catharine  Laurens  Ramsay,  manufactured  ^ 
opium  of  the  first  quality.  In  1755  Henry  . 
Laurens'  garden  in  Ansonborough  was  en- 
riched with  every  curious  vegetable  product 
from  remote  quarters  of  the  world  that  his 
extensive  mercantile  connections  enabled  him 
to  procure,  and  the  soil  and  climate  of  South 
Carolina  to  cherish.  He  introduced  besides 
olives,  capers,  limes,  ginger,  guinea  grass, 
Alpine  strawberries  (bearing  nine  months  in 
the  year),  and  many  choice  varieties  of  fruits. 
This  garden  was  superintended  by  his  wife, 
Mrs.  Elinor  Laurens. 

Mrs.  Martha  Logan  was  a  famous  botanist 
and  florist.     She  was  born  in  1 702,  and  was 

the 


86     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND  GOOD  WIVES. 

the  daughter  of  Robert  Daniel,  one  of  the 
last  proprietary  governors  of  South  Carolina. 
When  fourteen  years  old,  she  married  George 
Logan,  and  all  her  life  treasured  a  beautiful 
and  remarkable  garden.  When  seventy  years 
old,  she  compiled  from  her  knowledge  and 
experience  a  regular  treatise  on  gardening, 
which  was  published  after  her  death,  with 
the  title  The  Gardens  Kalendar.  It  was 
for  many  years  the  standard  work  on  garden- 
ing in  that  locality. 

Mrs.  Hopton  and  Mrs.  Lamboll  were  early 
and  assiduous  flower-raisers  and  experiment- 
ers in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  Miss 
Maria  Drayton,  of  Drayton  Hall,  a  skilled 
botanist 

J  The  most  distinguished  female  botanist  of 
colonial  days  was  Jane  Golden,  the  daughter 
of  Governor  Cadwallader  Golden,  of  New 
York.  Her  love  of  the  science  was  inherited 
from  her  father,  the  friend  and  correspondent 
of  Linnaeus,  Collinson,  and  other  botanists. 
She  learned  a  method  of  taking  leaf-impres- 
sions in  printers'  ink,  and  sent  careful  im- 
pressions of  American  plants  and  leaves  to 
the  European  collectors.  John  Ellis  wrote 
of  her  to  Linnaeus  in  April,  1758  :  — 

This 


WOMEN  OF  AFFAIRS.  8/ 

This  young  lady  merits  your  esteem,  and  does 
honor  to  your  system.  She  has  drawn  and  de- 
scribed four  hundred  plants  in  your  method.  Her 
father  has  a  plant  called  after  her  Coldenia.  Sup- 
pose you  should  call  this  new  genus  Coldenella 
or  any  other  name  which  might  distinguish  her. 

Peter  Collinson  said  also  that  she  was  the 
first  lady  to  study  the  Linnaean  system,  and 
deserved  to  be  celebrated.  Another  tribute 
to  her  may  be  found  in  a  letter  of  Walter 
Rutherford's  :  — 

From  the  middle  of  the  Woods  this  Family 
corresponds  with  all  the  learned  Societies  in 
Europe.  His  daughter  Jenny  is  a  Florist  and 
Botanist.  She  has  discovered  a  great  number  of 
Plants  never  before  described  and  has  given  their 
Properties  and  Virtues,  many  of  which  are  found 
useful  in  Medicine  and  she  draws  and  colours 
them  with  great  Beauty.  Dr.  Whyte  of  Edinburgh 
is  in  the  number  of  her  correspondents. 

N.  B.  She  makes  the  best  cheese  I  ever  ate 
in  America. 

The  homely  virtue  of  being  a  good  cheese- 
maker  was  truly  a  saving  clause  to 
palliate  and  excuse  so  much 
feminine  scientific 
knowledge. 


/ 


CHAPTER  III. 

"DOUBLE-TONGUED    AND    NAUGHTY    WOMEN.'* 

I  AM  much  impressed  in  reading  the  court 
records  of  those  early  days,  to  note  the 
vast  care  taken  in  all  the  colonies  to  prevent 
lying,  slandering,  gossiping,  backbiting,  and 
idle  babbling,  or,  as  they  termed  it,  "  brab- 
ling ; "  to  punish  "  common  sowers  and  mov- 
ers "  —  of  dissensions,  I  suppose. 

The  loving  neighborliness  which  proved 
as  strong  and  as  indispensable  a  foundation 
for   a  successful  colony   as   did   godliness, 
made  the  settlers  resent  deeply  any  viola- 
tions, though  petty,  of  the  laws  of  social 
kindness.     They  felt  that  what  they  termed 
f "  opprobrious   schandalls    tending    to    defa- 
£  macron  and  disparagment "  could  not  be  en- 
dured. 

One  old  author  declares  that  "  blabbing, 
babbling,  tale-telling,  and  discovering  the 
faults  and  frailities  of  others  is  a  most  Com- 
mon and  evill  practice."  He  asserts  that  a 

woman 


DOUBLE-TONGUED    WOMEN.  89 

woman  should  be  a  "main  store  house  of 
secresie,  a  Maggazine  of  taciturnitie,  the 
closet  of  connivence,  the  mumbudget  of  si- 
lence, the  cloake  bagge  of  rouncell,  the  cap- 
case,  fardel,  or  pack  of  friendly  toleration  ;  " 
which,  as  a  whole,  seems  to  be  a  good  deal 
to  ask.  Men  were,  as  appears  by  the  records, 
more  frequently  brought  up  for  these  offences 
of  the  tongue,  but  women  were  not  spared 
either  in  indictment  or  punishment.  In 
Windsor,  Conn.,  one  woman  was  whipped 
for  "  wounding  "  a  neighbor,  not  in  the  flesh, 
but  in  the  sensibilities. 

In  1652  Joane  Barnes,  of  Plymouth,  Mass., 
was  indicted  for  "  slandering,"  and  sentenced 
"to  sitt  in  the  stockes  during  the  Courts 
pleasure,  and  a  paper  whereon  her  facte  writ- 
ten in  Capitall  letters  to  be  made  faste  vnto 
her  hatt  or  neare  vnto  her  all  the  tyme  of 
her  sitting  there."  In  1654  another  Joane 
in  Northampton  County,  Va.,  suffered  a  pe- 
culiarly degrading  punishment  for  slander. 
She  was  "  drawen  ouer  the  Kings  Creeke  at 
the  starne  of  a  boate  or  Canoux,  also  the 
next  Saboth  day  in  the  tyme  of  diuine  ser- 
uis "  was  obliged  to  present  herself  before 
the  minister  and  congregation,  and  acknow- 
ledge 


90     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

ledge  her  fault,  and  ask  forgiveness.  This 
was  an  old  Scotch  custom.  The  same  year 
one  Charlton  called  the  parson,  Mr.  Cotton, 
a  "black  cotted  rascal,"  and  was  punished 
therefor  in  the  same  way.  Richard  Buckland, 
for  writing  a  slanderous  song  about  Ann 
Smith,  was  similarly  pilloried,  bearing  a  paper 
on  his  hat  inscribed  Inimicus  Libellus,  and 
since  possibly  all  the  church  attendants  did 
not  know  Latin,  to  publicly  beg  Ann's  for- 
giveness in  English  for  his  libellous  poesy. 
The  punishment  of  offenders  by  exposing 
them,  wrapped  in  sheets,  or  attired  in  foul 
clothing,  on  the  stool  of  repentance  in  the 
meeting-house  in  time  of  divine  service,  has 
always  seemed  to  me  specially  bitter,  un- 
seemly, and  unbearable. 

It  should  be  noted  that  these  suits  for 
slander  were  between  persons  in  every  sta- 
tion of  life.  When  Anneke  Jans  Bogardus 
(wife  of  Dominie  Bogardus,  the  second  estab- 
lished clergyman  in  New  Netherlands),  would 
not  remain  in  the  house  with  one  Grietje  van 
Salee,  a  woman  of  doubtful  reputation,  the 
latter  told  throughout  the  neighborhood  that 
Anneke  had  lifted  her  petticoats  when  cross- 
ing the  street,  and  exposed  her  ankles  in  un- 
seemly 


DOUBLE-TONGUED    WOMEN.  QI 

seemly  fashion  ;  and  she  also  said  that  the 
Dominie  had  sworn  a  false  oath.  Action  for 
slander  was  promptly  begun,  and  witnesses 
produced  to  show  that  Anneke  had  flourished 
her  petticoats  no  more  than  was  seemly 
and  tidy  to  escape  the  mud.  Judgment  was 
pronounced  against  Grietje  and  her  hus- 
band. She  had  to  make  public  declaration 
in  the  Fort  that  she  had  lied,  and  to  pay 
three  guilders.  The  husband  had  to  pay 
a  fine,  and  swear  to  the  good  character  of 
the  Dominie  and  good  carriage  of  the  Domi- 
nie's wife,  and  he  was  not  permitted  to 
carry  weapons  in  town,  —  a  galling  punish- 
ment. 

Dominie  Bogardus  was  in  turn  sued  sev- 
eral times  for  slander,  —  once  by  Thomas 
Hall,  the  tobacco  planter,  simply  for  saying 
that  Thomas'  tobacco  was  bad  ;  and  again, 
•wonderful  to  relate,  by  one  of  his  deacons  — 
Deacon  Van  Cortlandt. 

Special  punishment  was  provided  for 
women.  Old  Dr.  Johnson  said  gruffly  to  a 
lady  friend  :  "  Madam,  there  are  different 
ways  of  restraining  evil ;  stocks  for  men,  a 
ducking-stool  for  women,  pounds  for  beasts." 
The  old  English  instrument  of  punishment, 

—  as 


92     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

—  as  old  as  the  Doomsday  survey,  —  the 
cucking-stool  or  ducking-stool,  was  in  vogue 
here,  was  insultingly  termed  a  "publique 
convenience,"  and  was  used  in  the  Southern 
and  Central  colonies  for  the  correction  of 
common  scolds.  We  read  in  Blackstone's 
Commentaries,  "  A  common  scold  may  be 
indicted  and  if  convicted  shall  be  sentenced 
to  be  placed  in  a  certain  engine  of  correction 
called  the  trebucket,  castigatory,  or  cucking- 
stool."  Still  another  name  for  this  "  engine  " 
was  a  "gum-stool."  The  brank,  or  scold's 
bridle,  —  a  cruel  and  degrading  means  of 
punishment  employed  in  England  for  "  curst 
queans"  as  lately  as  1824,  —  was  unknown 
in  America.  A  brank  may  be  seen  at  the 
Guildhall  in  Worcester,  England.  One  at 
Walton-on-Thames  bears  the  date  1633.  On 
the  Isle  of  Man,  when  the  brank  was  re- 
moved, the  wearer  had  to  say  thrice,  in  pub- 
lic, "Tongue,  thou  hast  lied."  I  do  not  find 
that  women  ever  had  to  "run  the  gaunt- 
elope  "  as  did  male  offenders  in  1685  in  Bos- 
ton, and,  though  under  another  name,  in 
several  of  the  provinces. 

Women  in  Maine  were  punished  by  being 
gagged;  in  Plymouth,  Mass.,  and  in  East- 

hampton, 


DOUBLE-TONGUED    WOMEN.  93 

hampton,  L.  I.,  they  had  cleft  sticks  placed 
on  their  tongues  in  public;  in  the  latter 
place  because  the  dame  said  her  husband 
"  had  brought  her  to  a  place  where  there  was 
neither  gospel  nor  magistracy."  In  Salem 
"one  Oliver  —  his  wife"  had  a  cleft  stick 
placed  on  her  tongue  for  half  an  hour  in  pub- 
lic "for  reproaching  the  elders."  It  was  a 
high  offence  to  speak  "  discornfully  "  of  the 
elders  and  magistrates. 

The  first  volume  of  the  American  Histori- 
cal Record  gives  a  letter  said  to  have  been 
written  to  Governor  Endicott,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, in  1634  by  one  Thomas  Hartley 
from  Hungar's  Parish,  Virginia.  It  gives  a 
graphic  description  of  a  ducking-stool,  and  an 
account  of  a  ducking  in  Virginia.  I  quote 
from  it :  — 

The  day  afore  yesterday  at  two  of  ye  clock  in 
ye  afternoon  I  saw  this  punishment  given  to  one 
Betsey  wife  of  John  Tucker,  who  by  ye  violence 
of  her  tongue  had  made  his  house  and  ye  neigh- 
borhood uncomfortable.  She  was  taken  to  ye 
pond  where  I  am  sojourning  by  ye  officer  who 
was  joyned  by  ye  magistrate  and  ye  Minister  Mr. 
Cotton,  who  had  frequently  admonished  her  and  a 
large  number  of  People.  They  had  a  machine  for 

ye 


94     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

ye  purpose  y*  belongs  to  ye  Parish,  and  which  I 
was  so  told  had  been  so  used  three  times  this 
Summer.  It  is  a  platform  with  4  small  rollers  or 
wheels  and  two  upright  posts  between  which 
works  a  Lever  by  a  Rope  fastened  to  its  shorter 
or  heavier  end.  At  the  end  of  ye  longer  arm  is 
fixed  a  stool  upon  which  sd  Betsey  was  fastened 
by  cords,  her  gown  tied  fast  around  her  feete. 
The  Machine  was  then  moved  up  to  ye  edge  of 
ye  pond,  ye  Rope  was  slackened  by  ye  officer  and 
ye  woman  was  allowed  to  go  down  under  ye  water 
for  ye  space  of  half  a  minute.  Betsey  had  a  stout 
stomach,  and  would  not  yield  until  she  had 
allowed  herself  to  be  ducked  5  severall  times. 
At  length  she  cried  piteously  Let  me  go  Let  me 
go,  by  Gods  help  I  '11  sin  no  more.  Then  they 
drew  back  ye  machine,  untied  ye  Ropes  and  let 
her  walk  home  in  her  wetted  clothes  a  hopefully 
penitent  woman. 

I  have  seen  an  old  chap-book  print  of  a 
ducking-stool  with  a  "light  huswife  of  the 
bauck-side  "  in  it.  It  was  rigged  much  like 
an  old-fashioned  well-sweep,  the  woman  and 
chair  occupying  the  relative  place  of  the 
Kucket  The  base  of  the  upright  support 
was  on  a  low-wheeled  platform. 

Bishop  Meade,  in  his  Old  Churches,  Min- 
isters, and  Families  of  Virginia,  tells  of  one 

"  scolding 


DOUBLE-TONGUED    WOMEN.  95 

"  scolding  quean "  who  was  ordered  to  be 
ducked  three  times  from  a  vessel  lying  in 
James  River.  Places  for  ducking  were  pre- 
pared near  the  Court  Houses.  The  marshal's 
fee  for  ducking  was  only  two  pounds  of  to- 
bacco. The  ducking-stools  were  not  kept  in 
church  porches,  as  in  England.  In  1634  two 
women  were  sentenced  to  be  either  drawn 
from  King's  Creek  "  from  one  Cowpen  to  an- 
other at  the  starn  of  a  boat  or  kanew,"  or  to 
present  themselves  before  the  congregation, 
and  ask  forgiveness  of  each  other  and  God. 
In  1633  it  was  ordered  that  a  ducking-stool 
be  built  in  every  county  in  Maryland.  At  a 
court-baron  at  St.  Clements,  the  county  was 
prosecuted  for  not  having  one  of  these  "  pub- 
lic conveniences."  In  February,  1775,  a 
ducking-stool  was  ordered  to  be  placed  at  the 
confluence  of  the  Ohio  and  Monongahela 
Rivers,  and  was  doubtless  used.  As  late  a$ 
1819  Georgia  women  were  ducked  in  the1 
Oconee  River  for  scolding.  And  in  1824,  at| 
the  court  of  Quarter  Sessions,  a  Philadelphia 
woman  was  sentenced  to  be  ducked,  but  the  I 
punishment  was  not  inflicted,  as  it  was' 
deemed  obsolete  and  contrary  to  the  spirit 
of  the  times.  In  1803  the  ducking-stool  was 

still 


96     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

still  used  in  Liverpool,  England,  and  in  1809 
in  Leominster,  England. 

One  of  the  last  indictments  for  ducking 
in  our  own  country  was  that  of  Mrs.  Anne 
Royall  in  Washington,  almost  in  our  own 
day.  She  was  a  hated  lobbyist,  whom  Mr. 
Forney  called  an  itinerant  virago,  and  who 
became  so  abusive  to  congressmen  that  she 
was  indicted  as  a  common  scold  before  Judge 
William  Cranch,  and  was  sentenced  by  him 
to  be  ducked  in  the  Potomac.  She  was, 
however,  released  with  a  fine. 

Women  curst  with  a  shrewish  tongue  were 
often  punished  in  Puritan  colonies.  In  1647 
it  was  ordered  that  "common  scoulds "  be 
punished  in  Rhode  Island  by  ducking,  but 
I  find  no  records  of  the  punishment  being 
given.  In  1649  several  women  were  pros- 
ecuted in  Salem,  Mass.,  for  scolding;  and 
on  May  15,  1672,  the  General  Court  of  Mas- 
sachusetts ordered  that  scolds  and  railers 
should  be  gagged  or  "  set  in  a  ducking-stool 
and  dipped  over  head  and  ears  three  times," 
but  I  do  not  believe  that  this  law  was  ever 
executed  in  Massachusetts.  Nor  was  it  in 
Maine,  though  in  1664  a  dozen  towns  were 
fined  forty  shillings  each  for  having  no 
"coucking-stool." 


DOUBLE-TONGUED    WOMEN.  97 

"coucking-stool."  Equally  severe  punish- 
ments were  inflicted  for  other  crimes.  Kath- 
arine Ainis,  of  Plymouth,  was  publicly 
whipped  on  training  day,  and  ordered  to 
wear  a  large  B  cut  in  red  cloth  "  sewed  to 
her  vper  garment."  In  1637  Dorothy  Talbye, 
a  Salem  dame,  for  beating  her  husband  was 
ordered  to  be  bound  and  chained  to  a  post. 
At  a  later  date  she  was  whipped,  and  then 
was  hanged  for  killing  her  child,  who  bore 
the  strange  name  of  Difficulty.  No  one  but 
a  Puritan  magistrate  could  doubt,  from  Win- 
throp's  account  of  her,  that  she  was  insane. 
Another  "audatious"  Plymouth  shrew,  for 
various  "  vncivill  carriages  "  to  her  husband, 
was  sentenced  to  the  pillory  ;  and  if  half  that 
was  told  of  her  was  true,  she  richly  deserved 
her  sentence  ;  but,  as  she  displayed  "  greate 
pensiveness  and  sorrow  "  before  the  simple 
Pilgrim  magistrates,  she  escaped  temporarily, 
to  be  punished  at  a  later  date  for  a  greater 
sin.  The  magistrates  firmly  asserted  in 
court  and  out  that  "meekness  is  ye  chojsest 
orniment  for  a  woman." 

Joane  Andrews  sold  in  York,  Maine,  in 
1676,  two  stones  in  a  firkin  of  butter.  For 
this  cheatery  she  "  stood  in  towne  meeting 

at 


98     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

at  York  and  at  towne  meeting  at  Kittery 
till  2  hours  bee  expended,  with  her  offense 
written  upon  a  paper  in  capitall  letters  on 
her  forehead."  The  court  record  of  one 
woman  delinquent  in  Plymouth,  in  1683,  is 
grimly  comic.  It  seems  that  Mary  Rosse 
exercised  what  was  called  by  the  "  painful " 
court  chronicler  in  a  triumph  of  orthographi- 
cal and  nomenclatory  art,  an  "  inthewsias- 
tickall  power  "  over  one  Shingleterry,  a  mar- 
ried man,  who  cringingly  pleaded,  as  did  our 
first  father  Adam,  that  "  hee  must  doo  what 
shee  bade  him  "  —  or,  in  modern  phrase,  that 
she  hypnotized  him.  Mary  Rosse  and  her 
uncanny  power  did  not  receive  the  considera- 
tion that  similar  witches  and  works  do  now- 
adays. She  was  publicly  whipped  and  sent 
home  to  her  mother,  while  her  hypnotic  sub- 
ject was  also  whipped,  and  I  presume  sent 
home  to  his  wife. 

It  should  be  noted  that  in  Virginia,  under 
the  laws  proclaimed  by  Argall,  women  were 
in  some  ways  tenderly  regarded.  They  were 
not  punished  for  absenting  themselves  from 
church  on  Sundays  or  holidays ;  while  men 
for  one  offence  of  this  nature  had  "  to  lie 
neck  and  heels  that  night,  and  be  a  slave  to 

the 


DOUBLE-TONGUED  WOMEN.  99 

the  colony  for  the  following  week;  for  the 
second  offence  to  be  a  slave  for  a  month ;  for 
the  third,  for  a  year  and  a  day." 

It  is  curious  to  see  how  long  and  how  con- 
stantly, in  spite  of  their  severe  and  manifold 
laws,  the  pious  settlers  could  suffer  through 
certain  ill  company  which  they  had  been  un- 
lucky enough  to  bring  over,  provided  the 
said  offenders  did  not  violate  the  religious 
rules  of  the  community.  We  might  note  as 
ignoble  instances,  Will  Fancie  and  his  wife, 
of  New  Haven,  and  John  Dandy  and  his 
wife,  of  Maryland.  Their  names  constantly 
appear  for  years  in  the  court  records,  as 
offenders  and  as  the  cause  of  offences.  John 
Dandy  at  one  time  swore  in  court  that  all 
his  "controversies  from  the  beginning  of 
the  World  to  this  day  "  had  ceased ;  but  it 
would  have  been  more  to  the  purpose  had  he 
also  added  till  the  end  of  the  world,  for  his 
violence  soon  brought  him  to  the  gallows. 
Will  Fancie's  wife  seemed  capable  of  any 
and  every  offence,  from  "stealing  pinnes" 
to  stealing  the  affections  of  nearly  every  man 
with  whom  she  chanced  to  be  thrown ;  and 
the  magistrates  of  New  Haven  were  evi- 
dently sorely  puzzled  how  to  deal  with  her. 

I 


100    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

I  have  noted  in  the  court  or  church  rec- 
ords of  all  witch-ridden  communities,  save  in 
the  records  of  poor  crazed  and  bewildered 
Salem,  where  the  flame  was  blown  into  a 
roaring  blaze  by  "  the  foolish  breath  of  Cot- 
ton Mather,"  that  there  always  appear  on  the 
pages  some  plain  hints,  and  usually  some 
definite  statements,  which  account  for  the 
accusation  of  witchcraft  against  individuals. 
And  these  hints  indicate  a  hated  personality 
of  the  witch.  To  illustrate  my  meaning,  let 
me  take  the  the  case  of  Goody  Garlick,  of 
Easthampton,  Long  Island.  In  reading  the 
early  court  records  of  that  town,  I  was  im- 
pressed with  the  constant  meddlesome  inter- 
ference of  this  woman  in  all  social  and  town 
matters.  Every  page  reeked  of  Garlick.  She 
was  an  ever-ready  witness  in  trespass,  bound- 
ary, and  slander  suits,  for  she  was  apparently 
on  hand  everywhere.  She  was  present  when 
a  young  man  made  ugly  faces  at  the  wife  of 
Lion  Gardiner,  because  she  scolded  him  for 
eating  up  her  "  pomkin  porage ; "  and  she 
was  listening  when  Mistress  Edwards  was 
called  a  base  liar,  because  she  asserted  she 
had  in  her  chest  a  new  petticoat  that  she  had 
brought  from  England  some  years  before,  and 

had 


DOUBLE-TONGUED    WOMEN.          IOI 

had  never  worn  (and  of  course  no  woman 
could  believe  that).  In  short,  Goody  Gar- 
lick  was  a  constant  tale-bearer  and  barrator. 
Hence  it  was  not  surprising  to  me  to  find, 
when  Mistress  Arthur  Howell,  Lion  Gar- 
diner's daughter,  fell  suddenly  and  strangely 
ill,  and  cried  out  that  "a  double-tongued 
naughty  woman  was  tormenting  her,  a  woman 
who  had  a  black  cat,"  that  the  wise  neighbors 
at  once  remembered  that  Goody  Garlick  was 
double-tongued  and  naughty,  and  had  a  black 
cat  She  was  speedily  indicted  for  witch- 
craft, and  the  gravamen  appeared  to  be  her 
constant  tale-bearing. 

In  1706  a  Virginian  goody  with  a  prettier 
name,  Grace  Sherwood,  was  tried  as  a  witch  ; 
and  with  all  the  superstition  of  the  day,  and 
the  added  superstition  of  the  surrounding 
and  rapidly  increasing  negro  population,  there 
were  but  three  Virginian  witch-trials.  Grace 
Sherwood's  name  was  also  of  constant  recur- 
rence in  court  annals,  from  the  year  1690,  on 
the  court  records  of  Princess  Anne  County, 
especially  in  slander  cases.  She  was  exam- 
ined, after  her  indictment,  for  "witches 
marks "  by  a  jury  of  twelve  matrons,  each 
of  whom  testified  that  Grace  was  "not  like 

yur." 


102     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

yur."  The  magistrates  seem  to  have  been 
somewhat  disconcerted  at  the  convicting 
testimony  of  this  jury,  and  at  a  loss  how  to 
proceed,  but  the  witch  asserted  her  willing- 
ness to  endure  trial  by  water.  A  day  was 
set  for  the  ducking,  but  it  rained,  and 
the  tenderly  considerate  court  thought  the 
weather  unfavorable  for  the  trial  on  account 
of  the  danger  to  Grace's  health,  and  post- 
poned the  ducking.  At  last,  on  a  sunny 
July  day,  when  she  could  not  take  cold,  the 
witch  was  securely  pinioned  and  thrown  into 
Lyn  Haven  Bay,  with  directions  from  the 
magistrates  to  "but  her  into  the  debth." 
Into  the  "  debth  "  of  the  water  she  should 
have  contentedly  and  innocently  sunk,  but 
"  contrary  to  the  Judgments  of  all  the  spec- 
tators" she  persisted  in  swimming,  and  at 
last  was  fished  out  and  again  examined  to  see 
whether  the  "  witches  marks  "  were  washed 
off.  One  of  the  examiners  was  certainly  far 
from  being  prepossessed  in  Grace's  favor. 
She  was  a  dame  who  eight  years  before  had 
testified  that  "  Grace  came  to  her  one  night, 
and  rid  her,  and  went  out  of  the  key  hole  or 
crack  in  the  door  like  a  black  cat."  Grace 
Sherwood  was  not  executed,  and  she  did  not 

die 


DOUBLE-TONGUED    WOMEN.  103 

die  of  the  ducking,  but  it  cooled  her  quarrel- 
some temper.  She  lived  till  1740.  The 
point  where  she  was  butted  into  the  depth  is 
to  this  day  called  Witches  Duck. 

Grace  Sherwood  was  not  the  only  poor 
soul  that  passed  through  the  "  water-test " 
or  "the  fleeting  on  the  water"  for  witch- 
craft. In  September,  1692,  in  Fairfield, 
Conn.,  the  accused  witches  "Mercy  Disbur- 
row  and  Elizabeth  Clauson  were  bound  hand 
and  foot  and  put  into  the  water,  and  they 
swam  like  cork,  and  one  labored  to  press 
them  into  the  water,  and  they  buoyed  up 
like  cork."  Many  cruel  scenes  were  enacted 
in  Connecticut,  none  more  so  than  the  per- 
sistent inquisition  of  Good  wife  Knapp  after 
she  was  condemned  to  death  for  witchcraft. 
She  was  constantly  tormented  by  her  old 
friends  and  neighbors  to  confess  and  to 
accuse  one  Goody  Staples  as  an  accomplice ; 
but  the  poor  woman  repeated  that  she  must 
not  wrong  any  one  nor  say  anything  untrue. 
She  added :  — 

The  truth  is  you  would  have  me  say  that  good- 
wife  Staples  is  a  witch  but  I  have  sins  enough  to 
answer  for  already,  I  know  nothing  against  good- 
wife  Staples  and  I  hope  she  is  an  honest  woman. 

You 


IO4     COLONIAL   DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

You  know  not  what  I  know.  I  have  been  fished 
withall  in  private  more  than  you  are  aware  of.  I 
apprehend  that  goodwife  Staples  hath  done  me 
wrong  in  her  testimony  but  I  must  not  return 
evil  for  evil. 

Being  still  urged  and  threatened  with  eter- 
nal damnation,  she  finally  burst  into  bitter 
tears,  and  begged  her  persecutors  to  cease, 
saying  in  words  that  must  have  lingered  long 
in  their  memory,  and  that  still  make  the 
heart  ache,  "  Never,  never  was  poor  creature 
tempted  as  I  am  tempted  !  oh  pray !  pray  for 
me!" 

The  last  scene  in  this  New  England 
tragedy  was  when  her  poor  dead  body  was 
cut  down  from  the  gallows,  and  laid  upon  the 
green  turf  beside  her  grave ;  and  her  old 
neighbors,  excited  with  superstition,  and 
blinded  to  all  sense  of  shame  or  unwoman- 
liness,  crowded  about  examining  eagerly  for 
"  witch  signs ; "  while  in  the  foreground 
Goodwife  Staples,  whose  lying  words  had 
hanged  her  friend,  kneeled  by  the  poor  in- 
sulted corpse,  weeping  and  wringing  her 
hands,  calling  upon  God,  and  asserting  the 
innocence  of  the  murdered  woman. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that,  in  an  era  which 

did 


DOUBLE-TONGUED    WOMEN.  105 

did  not  much  encourage  the  public  speech 
or  public  appearance  of  women,  they  should 
have  served  on  juries;  yet  they  occasionally 
did,  not  only  in  witchcraft  cases  such  as 
Grace  Sherwood's  and  Alice  Cartwright's, 
—  another  Virginia  witch,  —  but  in  murder 
cases,  as  in  Kent  County,  Maryland ;  these 
juries  were  not  usually  to  render  the  final 
decision,  but  to  decide  upon  certain  points, 
generally  purely  personal,  by  which  their 
wise  husbands  could  afterwards  be  guided. 
I  don't  know  that  these  female  juries  shine 
as  exemplars  of  wisdom  and  judgment.  In 
1693  a  jury  of  twelve  women  in  Newbury, 
Mass.,  rendered  this  decision,  which  certainly 
must  have  been  final :  — 

Wee  judge  according  to  our  best  lights  and 
contients  that  the  Death  of  said  Elizabeth  was 
not  by  any  violens  or  wrong  done  to  her  by  any 
parson  or  thing  but  by  some  soden  stoping  of  hir 
Breath. 

In  Revolutionary  days  a  jury  of  "  twelve 
discreet  matrons"  of  Worcester,  Mass.,  gave 
a  decision  in  the  case  of  Bathsheba  Spooner, 
which  was  found  after  her  execution  to  be  a 
wrong  judgment.  She  was  the  last  woman 
hanged  by  law  in  Massachusetts,  and  her 

cruel 


X! 


IO6     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

cruel  fate  may  have  proved  a  vicarious  suf- 
fering and  means  of  exemption  for  other 
women  criminals. 

Women,  as  well  as  men,  when  suspected 
murderers,  had  to  go  through  the  cruel  and 
shocking  "blood-ordeal."  This  belief,  sup- 
ported by  the  assertions  of  that  learned  fool, 
King  James,  in  his  Demonolopie^  lingered 
long  in  the  minds  of  many,  —  indeed  does 
to  this  day  in  poor  superstitious  folk.  The 
royal  author  says  :  — 

In  a  secret  murther,  if  the  dead  carkas  be  at 
any  time  thereafter  handled  by  the  murtherer,  it 
will  gush  out  of  blood. 

Sometimes  a  great  number  of  persons  were 
made  to  touch  in  turn  the  dead  body,  hoping 
thus  to  discover  the  murderer. 

It  has  been  said  that  few  women  were 
taught  to  write  in  colonial  days,  and  that 
those  few  wrote  so  ill  their  letters  could 
scarce  be  read.  I  have  seen  a  goodly  num- 
ber of  letters  written  by  women  in  those 
times,  and  the  handwriting  is  comparatively 
as  good  as  that  of  their  husbands  and  bro- 
thers. Margaret  Winthrop  wrote  with  pre- 
cision and  elegance.  A  letter  of  Anne 

Winthrop's 


DOUBLE-TONGUED    WOMEN.  IO/ 

Winthrop's  dated  1737  is  clear,  regular,  and 
beautiful.  Mary  Higginson's  writing  is  fair, 
and  Elizabeth  Cushing's  irregular  and  uncer- 
tain, as  if  of  infrequent  occurrence.  Eliza- 
beth Corwin's  is  clear,  though  irregular ; 
Mehitable  Parkman's  more  careless  and 
wavering ;  all  are  easily  read.  But  the  most 
beautiful  old  writing  I  have  ever  seen,  — 
elegant,  regular,  wonderfully  clear  and  well- 
proportioned,  was  written  by  the  hand  of 
a  woman,  —  a  criminal,  a  condemned  mur- 
derer, Elizabeth  Attwood,  who  was  executed 
in  1720  for  the  murder  of  her  infant  child. 
The  letter  was  written  from  "  Ipswitch  Gole 
in  Bonds  "  to  Cotton  Mather,  and  is  a  most 
pathetic  and  intelligent  appeal  for  his  inter- 
ference to  save  her  life.  The  beauty  and 
simplicity  of  her  language,  the  force  and 
directness  of  her  expressions,  her  firm  denial 
of  the  crime,  her  calm  religious  assurance, 
are  most  touching  to  read,  even  after  the 
lapse  of  centuries,  and  make  one  wonder  that 
any  one  —  magistrate  or  priest,  —  even  Cot- 
ton Mather  —  could  doubt  her  innocence. 
But  she  was  hanged  before  a  vast  concourse 
of  eager  people,  and  was  declared  most  im- 
penitent and  bold  in  her  denial  of  her  guilt ; 

and 


108     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

and  it  was  brought  up  against  her,  as  a  most 
hardened  brazenry,  that  to  cheat  the  hang- 
man (who  always  took  as  handsel  of  his  vic- 
tim the  garments  in  which  she  was  "  turned 
off "),  she  appeared  in  her  worst  attire,  and 
announced  that  he  would  get  but  a  sorry 
suit  from  her.     I  do  not  know  the 
estate  in  life  of  Elizabeth  Att- 
wood,  but  it  could  not  have 
been  mean,  for  her  let- 
ter shows  great 
refinement. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

BOSTON    NEIGHBORS. 

ACCOUNTS  of  isolated  figures  are  often 
more  interesting  than  chapters  of  gen- 
eral history,  and  biographies  more  attractive 
than  state  records,  because  more  petty  details 
of  vivid  human  interest  can  be  learned  ;  so,  ^ 
in  order  to  present  clearly  a  picture  of  the  \ 
social  life  of  women  in  the  earliest  days  of 
New  England,  I  give  a  description  of  a  group 
of  women,  contiguous  in  residence,  and  con- 
temporary in  life,  rather  than  an  account  of 
some  special  dame  of  dignity  or  note ;  and  I 
call  this  group  Boston  Neighbors. 

If  the  setting  of  this  picture  would  add  to 
its  interest,  it  is  easy  to  portray  the  little 
settlement.  The  peninsula,  but  half  as  large 
as  the  Boston  of  to-day,  was  fringed  with  sea- 
marshes,  and  was  crowned  with  three  conical 
hills,  surmounted  respectively  with  the  wind- 
mill, the  fort,  and  the  beacon.  The  cham- 
paign was  simply  an  extended  pasture  with 

few 


IIO    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

few  trees,  but  fine  springs  of  water.  Wind- 
ing footpaths  —  most  interesting  of  roadways 
—  connected  the  detached  dwellings,  and 
their  irregular  outlines  still  show  in  our  Bos- 
ton streets.  The  thatched  clay  houses  were 
being  replaced  by  better  and  more  substan- 
tial dwellings.  William  Coddington  had  built 
the  first  brick  house. 

On  the  main  street,  now  Washington 
Street,  just  east  of  where  the  Old  South 
Church  now  stands,  lived  the  dame  of  high- 
est degree,  and  perhaps  the  most  beautiful 
personality,  in  this  little  group  —  Margaret 
Tyndal  Winthrop,  the  "  loving  faythfull  yoke- 
fellow" of  Governor  John  Winthrop.  She 
was  his  third  wife,  though  he  was  but  thirty 
when  he  married  her.  He  had  been  first 
married  when  but  seventeen  years  old.  He 
writes  that  he  was  conceived  by  his  parents 
to  be  at  that  age  a  man  in  stature  and  under- 
standing. This  wife  brought  to  him,  and  left 
to  him,  "  a  large  portion  of  outward  estate," 
and  four  little  children.  Of  the  second  wife 
he  writes,  "  For  her  carriage  towards  myselfe, 
it  was  so  amiable  and  observant  as  I  am  not 
able  to  expresse ;  it  had  only  this  inconven- 
ience, that  it  made  me  delight  in  hir  too  much 

to 


BOSTON  NEIGHBORS.  1 1 1 

to  enjoy  hir  long,"  —  and  she  lived  with  him 
but  a  year  and  a  day.  He  married  Margaret 
in  1618,  and  when  she  had  borne  five  chil- 
dren, he  left  her  in  1630,  and  sailed  to  New 
England.  She  came  also  the  following  year, 
and  was  received  "with  great  joy"  and  a 
day  of  Thanksgiving.  For  the  remaining 
sixteen  years  of  her  life  she  had  but  brief 
separations  from  her  husband,  and  she  died, 
as  he  wrote,  "especially  beloved  of  all  the 
country."  Her  gentle  love-letters  to  her 
husband,  and  the  simple  testimony  of  con- 
temporary letters  of  her  relatives  and  friends, 
show  her  to  have  been  truly  "  a  sweet  gra- 
cious woman  "  who  endured  the  hardships  of 
her  new  home,  the  Governor's  loss  of  fortune, 
and  his  trying  political  experiences,  with 
unvarying  patience  and  "  singular  virtue, 
modesty  and  piety." 

There  lived  at  this  time  in  Boston  a  woman 
who  must  have  been  well  known  personally 
by  Madam  Winthrop,  for  she  was  a  near 
neighbor,  living  within  stone's  throw  of  the 
Governor's  house,  on  the  spot  where  now 
stands  "  The  Old  Corner  Bookstore."  This 
woman  was  Anne  Hutchinson.  She  came 
with  Rev.  John  Cotton  from  Boston,  Eng- 
land, 


112    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

land,  to  Boston,  New  England,  well  respected 
and  well  beloved.  She  went  an  outcast, 
hated  and  feared  by  many  she  left  behind 
her  in  Boston.  For  years  her  name  was  on 
every  tongue,  while  she  was  under  repeated 
trials  and  examinations  for  heresy.  In  the 
controversy  over  her  and  her  doctrines,  mag- 
istrates, ministers,  women,  soldiers,  the  com- 
mon multitude  of  Boston,  all  took  part,  and 
took  sides  ;  through  the  pursuance  of  the 
controversy  the  government  of  the  colony 
was  changed.  Her  special  offences  against 
doctrines  were  those  two  antiquated  "  here- 
sies," Antinomianism  and  Familism,  which  I 
could  hardly  define  if  I  would.  According 
to  Winthrop  they  were  "  those  two  danger- 
ous errors  that  the  person  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
dwells  in  a  justified  person,  and  that  no 
sanctification  can  help  to  evidence  to  us  our 
justification."  Her  special  offences  against 
social  and  religious  routines  were  thus  related 
by  Cotton  Mather  :  — 

At  the  meetings  of  the  women  which  used  to 
be  called  gossippings  it  was  her  manner  to  carry 
on  very  pious  discourses  and  so  put  the  neighbor- 
hood upon  examining  their  spiritual  estates  by 
telling  them  how  far  a  person  might  go  in  "  trou- 
ble 


BOSTON  NEIGHBORS.  113 

ble  of  mind,"  and  being  restrained  from  very 
many  evils  and  constrained  into  very  many  duties, 
by  none  but  a  legal  work  upon  their  souls  with- 
out ever  coming  to  a  saving  union  with  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  that  many  of  them  were  convinced 
of  a  very  great  defect  in  the  settlement  of  their 
everlasting  peace,  and  acquainted  more  with  the 
"  Spirit  of  the  Gospel "  than  ever  they  were 
before.  This  mighty  show  and  noise  of  devotion 
made  the  reputation  of  a  non-such  among  the 
people  until  at  length  under  pretence  of  that 
warrant  "  that  the  elder  women  are  to  teach  the 
younger"  she  set  up  weekly  meetings  at  her 
house  whereto  three  score  or  four  score  people 
would  report.  .  .  . 

It  was  not  long  before  it  was  found  out  that 
most  of  the  errors  then  crawling  like  vipers  were 
hatch'd  at  these  meetings. 

So  disturbed  was  the  synod  of  ministers 
which  was  held  early  in  the  controversy,  that 
this  question  was  at  once  resolved :  — 

That  though  women  might  meet  (some  few  to- 
gether) to  pray  and  edify  one  another,  yet  such  a 
set  assembly  (as  was  then  the  practice  in  Boston) 
where  sixty  or  more  did  meet  every  week,  and 
one  woman  (in  a  prophetical  way  by  resolving 
questions  of  doctrines  and  expounding  scripture) 

took 


114     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

took  upon  her  the  whole  exercise,  was  agreed  to 
be  disorderly  and  without  rule. 

As  I  read  the  meagre  evidences  of  her 
belief,  I  see  that  Anne  Hutchinson  had  a 
high  supernatural  faith  which,  though  mysti- 
cal at  its  roots,  aimed  at  being  practical  in 
its  fruits  ;  but  she  was  critical,  tactless,  and 
over-inquisitive,  and  doubtless  censorious, 
and  worst  of  all  she  "vented  her  revela- 
tions," which  made  her  seem  to  many  of  the 
Puritans  the  very  essence  of  fanaticism ;  so 
she  was  promptly  placed  on  trial  for  heresy 
for  "  twenty-nine  cursed  opinions  and  falling 
into  fearful  lying,  with  an  impudent  Forehead 
in  the  public  assembly."  The  end  of  it  all 
in  that  theocracy  could  not  be  uncertain. 
One  woman,  even  though  her  followers  in- 
cluded Governor  Sir  Henry  Vane,  and  a 
hundred  of  the  most  influential  men  of  the 
community,  could  not  stop  the  powerful  ma- 
chinery of  the  Puritan  Church  and  Common- 
wealth, the  calm,  well-planned  opposition  of 
Winthrop ;  and  after  a  succession  of  mortify- 
ing indignities,  and  unlimited  petty  hectoring 
and  annoying,  she  was  banished.  "  The  court 
put  an  end  to  her  vapouring  talk,  and  finding 
no  hope  of  reclaiming  her  from  her  scandal- 
ous, 


BOSTON  NEIGHBORS.  115 

ous,  dangerous,  and  enchanting  extravagan- 
cies, ordered  her  out  of  the  colony." 

In  reading  of  her  life,  her  trials,  it  is  dif- 
ficult to  judge  whether  —  to  borrow  Howel's 
expression  —  the  crosier  or  the  distaff  were 
most  to  blame  in  all  this  sad  business ; 
the  preachers  certainly  took  an  over-active 
part. 

Of  the  personal  appearance  of  this  "  erro- 
neous gentlewoman  "  we  know  nothing.  I 
do  not  think,  in  spite  of  the  presumptive  evi- 
dence of  the  marked  personal  beauty  of  her 
descendants,  that  she  was  a  handsome  woman, 
else  it  would  certainly  be  so  stated.  The 
author  of  the  Short  Story  of  the  Rise  Reigne 
and  Ruine  of  the  Antinomians,  Familists,  and 
Libertines  that  infected  the  Churches  of  New 
England  calls  her  "a  woman  of  a  haughty 
and  fierce  carriage,  of  a  nimble  wit  and  active 
spirit,  and  a  very  voluble  tongue,  more  bold 
than  a  man,  though  in  understanding  and 
judgment  inferior  to  many  women."  He 
also  termed  her  "the  American  Jezebel," 
and  so  did  the  traveller  Josselyn  in  his  Ac- 
count of  Two  Voyages  to  New  England; 
while  Minister  Hooker  styled  her  "a 
wretched  woman."  Johnson,  in  his  Wonder- 
Working 


Il6     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

Working  Providence,  calls  her  the  "  master- 
piece of  woman's  wit."  Governor  Winthrop 
said  she  was  "  a  woman  of  ready  wit  and  bold 
spirit."  Cotton  Mather  called  her  a  virago, 
cunning,  canting,  and  proud,  but  he  did  not 
know  her. 

We  to-day  can  scarcely  comprehend  what 
these  "double  weekly  lectures"  must  have 
been  to  these  Boston  women,  with  their  ex- 
treme conscientiousness,  their  sombre  reli- 
gious belief,  and  their  timid  superstition,  in 
their  hard  and  perhaps  homesick  life.  The 
materials  for  mental  occupation  and  excite- 
ment were  meagre ;  hence  the  spiritual 
excitement  caused  by  Anne  Hutchinson's 
prophesyings  must  have  been  to  them  a  fas- 
cinating religious  dissipation.  Many  were 
exalted  with  a  supreme  assurance  of  their 
salvation.  Others,  bewildered  with  spiritual 
doubts,  fell  into  deep  gloom  and  depression  ; 
and  one  woman  in  utter  desperation  at- 
tempted to  commit  a  crime,  and  found 
therein  a  natural  source  of  relief,  saying 
"  now  she  was  sure  she  should  be  damned." 
Into  all  this  doubt  and  depression  the  wives 
—  to  use  Cotton  Mather's  phrase  —  "  hooked 
in  their  husbands."  So-,  perhaps,  after  all  it 


BOSTON  NEIGHBORS.  llj 

was  well  to  banish  the  fomenter  of  all  these 
troubles  and  bewilderments. 

Still,  I  wonder  whether  Anne  Hutchin- 
son's  old  neighbors  and  gossips  did  not 
regret  these  interesting  meetings,  these  ex- 
citing prophesyings,  when  they  were  sternly 
ended.  I  hope  they  grieved  for  her  when 
they  heard  of  her  cruel  death  by  Indian  mas- 
sacre ;  and  I  know  they  remembered  her  un- 
stinted, kindly  offices  in  time  of  sickness  and 
affliction;  and  I  trust  they  honored  "her 
ever  sober  and  profitable  carriage,"  and  I 
suspect  some  of  them  in  their  inmost  hearts 
deplored  the  Protestant  Inquisition  of  their 
fathers  and  husbands,  that  caused  her  exile 
and  consequent  murder  by  the  savages. 

Samuel  Johnson  says,  "  As  the  faculty  of 
writing  is  chiefly  a  masculine  endowment, 
the  reproach  of  making  the  world  miserable 
has  always  been  thrown  upon  women."  As 
the  faculty  of  literary  composition  at  that 
day  was  wholly  a  masculine  endowment,  we 
shall  never  know  what  the  Puritan  women 
really  thought  of  Anne  Hutchinson,  and 
whether  they  threw  upon  her  any  reproach. 

We  gain  a  slight  knowledge  of  what  Mar- 
garet Winthrop  thought  of  all  this  religious 

ecstasy, 


IlS    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

ecstasy,  this  bitter  quarrelling,  from  a  letter 
written  by  her,  and  dated  "  Sad-Boston." 
She  says:  — 

Sad  thoughts  possess  my  sperits,  and  I  cannot 
repulce  them ;  wch  makes  me  unfit  for  anythinge, 
wondringe  what  the  Lord  meanes  by  all  these 
troubles  among  us.  Shure  I  am  that  all  shall 
worke  to  the  best  to  them  that  love  God,  or  rather 
are  loved  of  hime,  I  know  he  will  bring  light  out 
of  obcurity  and  make  his  rituusnesse  shine  forth 
as  clere  as  the  nounday;  yet  I  find  in  myself 
an  aferce  spiret,  and  a  tremblinge  hart,  not  so 
willing  to  submit  to  the  will  of  God  as  I  desyre. 
There  is  a  time  to  plant,  and  a  time  to  pull  up 
that  which  is  planted,  which  I  could  desyre  might 
not  be  yet. 

And  so  it  would  seem  to  us  to-day  that  it 
was  indeed  a  doubtful  beginning  to  tear  up 
with  such  violence  even  flaunting  weeds,  lest 
the  tender  and  scattered  grain,  whose  roots 
scarce  held  in  the  unfamiliar  soil,  might  also 
be  uprooted  and  wither  and  die.  But  the 
colony  endured  these  trials,  and  flourished, 
as  it  did  other  trials,  and  still  prospered. 

Though  written  expression  of  their  feel- 
ings is  lacking,  we  know  that  the  Boston 
neighbors  gave  to  Anne  Hutchinson  that 

sincerest 


BOSTON  NEIGHBORS.  1 19 

sincerest  flattery  —  imitation.  Perhaps  her 
fellow-prophets  should  not  be  called  imita- 
tors, but  simply  kindred  religious  spirits. 
The  elements  of  society  in  colonial  Boston 
were  such  as  plentifully  to  produce  and  stimu- 
late "disordered  and  heady  persons." 

Among  them  was  Mary  Dyer,  thus  de- 
scribed by  Winthrop :  — 

The  wife  of  William  Dyer,  a  milliner  in  the 
New  Exchange,  a  very  proper  and  fair  woman, 
notoriously  infected  with  Mrs  Hutchinsons  er- 
rors, and  very  censorious  and  troublesome.  She 
being  of  a  very  proud  spirit  and  much  addicted 
to  revelations. 

Another  author  called  her  "a  comely 
grave  woman,  of  a  goodly  personage,  and  of 
good  report." 

Some  of  these  Boston  neighbors  lived  to 
see  two  sad  sights.  Fair  comely  Mary  Dyer, 
after  a  decade  of  unmolested  and  peaceful 
revelations  in  Rhode  Island,  returned  to  her 
early  home,  and  persistently  preached  to  her 
old  friends,  and  then  walked  through  Boston 
streets  hand  in  hand  with  two  young  Quaker 
friends,  condemned  felons,  to  the  sound  of 
the  drums  of  the  train  band,  glorying  in  her 
companionship  ;  and  then  she  was  set  on  a 

gallows 


I2O     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

gallows  with  a  halter  round  her  neck,  while 
her  two  friends  were  hanged  before  her 
eyes;  this  was  witnessed  by  such  a  multi- 
tude that  the  drawbridge  broke  under  the 
weight  of  the  returning  North-enders.  And 
six  months  later  this  very  proper  and  fair 
woman  herself  was  hanged  in  Boston,  to  rid 
the  commonwealth  of  an  intolerable  plague. 

A  letter  still  exists,  written  by  William 
Dyer  to  the  Boston  magistrates  to  "  beg 
affectionately  the  life  of  my  deare  wife."  It 
is  most  touching,  most  heart-rending ;  it 
ends  thus,  "  Yourselves  have  been  husbands 
of  wife  or  wives,  and  so  am  I,  yea  to  one 
most  dearlye  beloved.  Oh  do  not  you  de- 
prive me  of  her,  but  I  pray  you  give  me  her 
out  againe.  Pitye  me  —  I  beg  it  with  teares." 

The  tears  still  stain  this  poor  sorrowful, 
appealing  letter,  —  a  missive  so  gentle,  so 
timid,  so  full  of  affection,  of  grief,  that  I 
cannot  now  read  it  unmoved  and  I  do  indeed 
"  pitye "  thee.  William  Dyer's  tears  have 
not  been  the  only  ones  to  fall  on  his  beauti- 
ful, tender  words. 

Another  interesting  neighbor  living  where 
Washington  Street  crossed  Brattle  Street  was 
the  bride,  young  Madam  Bellingham,  whose 

marriage 


BOSTON  NEIGHBORS.  121 

marriage  had  caused  such  a  scandal  in  good 
society  in  Boston.  Winthrop's  account  of 
this  affair  is  the  best  that  could  be  given  :  — 

The  governour  Mr  Belli  ngham  was  married. 
The  young  gentlewoman  was  ready  to  be  con- 
tracted to  a  friend  of  his  who  lodged  in  his 
house,  and  by  his  consent  had  proceeded  so  far 
with  her,  when  on  a  sudden  the  governour  treated 
with  her,  and  obtained  her  for  himself.  He 
excused  it  by  the  strength  of  his  affection,  and 
that  she  was  not  absolutely  promised  to  the 
other  gentleman.  Two  errors  more  he  com- 
mitted upon  it.  i.  That  he  would  not  have  his 
contract  published  where  he  dwelt,  contrary  to 
the  order  of  court.  2.  That  he  married  himself 
contrary  to  the  constant  practice  of  the  country. 
The  great  inquest  prosecuted  him  for  breach  of 
the  order  of  the  court,  and  at  the  court  following 
in  the  fourth  month,  the  secretary  called  him  to 
answer  the  prosecution.  But  he  not  going  off 
the  bench,  as  the  manner  was,  and  but  few  of  the 
magistrates  present,  he  put  it  off  to  another  time, 
intending  to  speak  with  him  privately,  and  with 
the  rest  of  the  magistrates  about  the  case,  and 
accordingly  he  told  him  the  reason  why  he  did 
not  proceed,  viz.,  that  being  unwilling  to  com- 
mand him  publicly  to  go  off  the  bench,  and  yet 
not  thinking  it  fit  he  should  sit  as  a  judge,  when 

he 


122     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

he  was  by  law  to  answer  as  an  offender.  This 
he  took  ill,  and  said  he  would  not  go  off  the 
bench  except  he  were  commanded. 

I  think  the  young  English  girl,  Penelope 
Pelham,  must  have  been  sadly  bewildered 
by  the  strange  abrupt  ways  of  the  new  land, 
by  her  dictatorial  elderly  lover,  by  his  auto- 
cratic and  singular  marriage  with  her,  by 
the  attempted  action  of  the  government 
against  him.  She  had  a  long  life  thereafter, 
for  he  lived  to  be  eighty  years  old,  and  she 
survived  him  thirty  years. 

A  very  querulous  and  turbulent  neighbor 
who  lived  on  Milk  Street  was  Mistress  Ann 
Hibbins,  the  wife  of  one  of  Boston's  honored 
citizens.  Her  husband  had  been  unsuccess- 
ful in  business  matters,  and  this  "so  dis- 
composed his  wife's  spirit  that  she  was 
scarce  ever  well  settled  in  her  mind  after- 
wards," and  at  last  was  put  out  of  the  church 
and  by  her  strange  carriage  gave  occasion 
to  her  superstitious  neighbors  to  charge  her 
with  being  a  witch.  She  was  brought  to 
trial  for  witchcraft,  convicted,  sentenced, 
and  hung  upon  a  Thursday  lecture  day,  in 
spite  of  her  social  position,  and  the  fact  that 
her  brother  was  Governor  Bellingham.  She 

had 


BOSTON  NEIGHBORS.  123 

had  other  friends,  high  in  authority,  as  her 
will  shows,  and  she  had  the  belongings  of  a 
colonial  dame,  "  a  diamond  ring,  a  taffety 
cloke,  silk  gown  and  kirtle,  pinck-colored  pet- 
ticoat, and  money  in  the  deske."  Minister 
Beach  wrote  to  Increase  Mather  in  1684:  — 

I  have  sometimes  told  you  your  famous  Mr 
Norton  once  said  at  his  own  table  before  Mr 
Wilson,  Elder  Penn  and  myself  and  wife  who 
had  the  honour  to  be  his  guests  —  that  the  wife 
of  one  of  your  magistrates,  I  remember,  was 
hanged  for  a  witch  only  for  having  more  wit 
than  her  neighbors.  It  was  his  very  expression ; 
she  having  as  he  explained  it,  unhappily  guessed 
that  two  of  her  prosecutors,  whom  she  saw  talk- 
ing in  the  street  were  talking  about  her  —  which 
cost  her  her  life,  notwithstanding  all  he  could  do 
to  the  contrary. 

It  would  naturally  be  thought,  from  the 
affectionate  and  intense  devotion  of  the 
colonists  to  the  school  which  had  just  be- 
come "  Harvard-Colledge,"  that  Mr.  Nathan- 
iel Eaton,  the  head-master  of  the  freshly 
established  seat  of  learning,  would  be  a  citi- 
zen of  much  esteem,  and  his  wife  a  dame  of 
as  dignified  carriage  and  honored  station  as 
any  of  her  Boston  and  Cambridge  neighbors. 

Let 


124    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

Let  us  see  whether  such  was  the  case.  Mr. 
Eaton  had  had  much  encouragement  to  con- 
tinue at  the  head  of  the  college  for  life ;  he 
had  been  offered  a  tract  of  five  hundred 
acres  of  land,  and  liberal  support  had  been 
offered  by  the  government,  and  he  "  had 
many  scholars,  the  sons  of  gentlemen  and 
of  others  of  best  note  in  the  country."  Yet 
when  he  fell  out  with  one  of  his  ushers  on 
very  slight  occasion,  he  struck  the  usher 
and  caused  two  more  to  hold  the  poor  fellow 
while  he  beat  him  two  hundred  stripes  with 
a  heavy  walnut  cudgel ;  and  when  poor  Usher 
Briscoe  fell  a-praying,  in  fear  of  dying,  Mas- 
ter Eaton  beat  him  further  for  taking  the 
name  of  God  in  vain.  When  all  this  cruelty 
was  laid  to  him  in  open  court  "  his  answers 
were  full  of  pride  and  disdain,"  and  he  said 
he  had  this  unvarying  rule,  "  that  he  would 
not  give  over  correcting  till  he  had  subdued 
the  party  to  his  will."  And  upon  being 
questioned  about  other  malpractices,  espe- 
cially the  ill  and  scant  diet  provided  by  him 
for  the  students,  though  good  board  had 
been  paid  by  them,  he,  Adam-like,  "  put  it 
off  to  his  wife." 

Her  confession  of  her  connection  with  the 

matter 


BOSTON  NEIGHBORS.  12$ 

matter  is  still  in  existence,  and  proves  her 
accomplishments  as  a  generous  and  tidy 
housewife  about  equal  to  his  dignity  and 
lenity  as  head  of  the  college.  It  is  a  most 
curious  and  minute  document,  showing 
what  her  duties  were,  and  the  way  she  per- 
formed them,  and  also  giving  an  interesting 
glimpse  of  college  life  in  those  days.  It 
reads  thus  :  — 

For  their  breakfast  that  it  was  not  so  well 
ordered,  the  flower  not  so  fine  as  it  might,  nor  so 
well  boiled  or  stirred  at  all  times  that  it  was  so, 
it  was  my  sin  of  neglect,  and  want  of  care  that 
ought  to  have  been  in  one  that  the  Lord  had  in- 
trusted with  such  a  work. 

Concerning  their  beef,  that  was  allowed  them, 
as  they  affirm,  which  I  confess  had  been  my  duty 
to  have  seen  they  should  have  had  it,  and  con- 
tinued to  have  had  it,  because  it  was  my  hus- 
bands command ;  but  truly  I  must  confess,  to  my 
shame,  I  cannot  remember  that  ever  they  had  it 
nor  that  ever  it  was  taken  from  them. 

And  that  they  had  not  so  good  or  so  much 
provision  in  my  husbands  absence  as  presence,  I 
conceive  it  was,  because  he  would  call  sometimes 
for  butter  or  cheese  when  I  conceived  there  was 
no  need  of  it ;  yet  for  as  much  as  the  scholars 
did  otherways  apprehend,  I  desire  to  see  the 

evil 


126    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

evil  that  was  in  the  carriage  of  that  as  in  the 
other  and  to  take  shame  to  myself  for  it. 

And  that  they  sent  down  for  more,  when  they 
had  not  enough,  and  the  maid  should  answer,  if 
they  had  not,  they  should  not.  I  must  confess 
that  I  have  denied  them  cheese,  when  they  have 
sent  for  it,  and  it  have  been  in  the  house,  for 
which  I  shall  humbly  beg  pardon  to  them,  and 
own  the  shame,  and  confess  my  sin. 

And  for  such  provoking  words  which  my  ser- 
vants have  given,  I  cannot  own  them,  but  am 
sorry  any  such  should  be  given  in  my  house. 

And  for  bad  fish,  they  had  it  brought  to  table, 
I  am  sorry  there  was  that  cause  of  offence  given  \ 
I  acknowledge  my  sin  in  it.  ...  I  am  much 
ashamed  it  should  be  in  the  family,  and  not  pre- 
vented by  myself  or  my  servants,  and  I  humbly 
acknowledge  my  negligence  in  it. 

And  that  they  made  their  beds  at  any  time, 
were  my  straits  never  so  great,  I  am  sorry  they 
were  ever  put  to  it. 

For  the  Moor,  his  lying  in  Sam  Hough's  sheet 
and  pillow-bier,  it  hath  a  truth  in  it ;  he  did  so 
at  one  time  and  it  gave  Sam  Hough  just  cause 
for  offence  ;  and  that  it  was  not  prevented  by  my 
care  and  watchfulness  I  desire  to  take  the  shame 
and  the  sorrow  for  it 

And  that  they  eat  the  Moor's  crusts,  and  the 
swine  and  they  had  share  and  share  alike ;  and 

the 


BOSTON  NEIGHBORS.  12 J 

the  Moor  to  have  beer,  and  they  denied  it,  and  if 
they  had  not  enough,  for  my  maid  to  answer  they 
should  not,  I  am  an  utter  stranger  to  these  things, 
and  know  not  the  least  foot-steps  for  them  so  to 
charge  me;  and  if  my  servants  were  guilty  of 
such  miscarriages,  had  the  boarders  complained 
of  it  unto  myself,  I  should  have  thought  it  my 
sin,  if  I  had  not  sharply  removed  my  servants 
and  endeavored  reform. 

And  for  bread  made  of  sour  heated  meal, 
though  I  know  of  but  once  that  it  was  so  since  I 
kept  house,  yet  John  Wilson  affirms  that  it  was 
twice ;  and  I  am  truly  sorry  that  any  of  it  was 
spent  amongst  them. 

For  beer  and  bread  that  it  was  denied  them  by 
me  betwixt  meals,  truly  I  do  not  remember,  that 
ever  I  did  deny  it  unto  them ;  and  John  Wilson 
will  affirm  that,  generally,  the  bread  and  beer 
was  free  for  the  boarders  to  go  to. 

And  that  money  was  demanded  of  them  for 
washing  the  linen,  tis  true  that  it  was  propounded 
to  them  but  never  imposed  upon  them. 

And  for  their  pudding  being  given  the  last 
day  of  the  week  without  butter  or  suet,  and 
that  I  said,  it  was  a  miln  of  Manchester  in  old 
England,  its  true  that  I  did  say  so,  and  am  sorry, 
that  had  any  cause  of  offence  given  them  by 
having  it  so. 

And  for  their  wanting  beer  betwixt  brewings,  a 

week 


128     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

week  or  half  a  week  together,  I  am  sorry  that  it 
was  so  at  any  time,  and  should  tremble  to  have 
it  so,  were  it  in  my  hands  to  do  again. 

And  whereas  they  say,  that  sometimes  they 
have  sent  down  for  more  meat  and  it  hath  been 
denied,  when  it  have  been  in  the  house,  I  must 
confess,  to  my  shame,  that  I  have  denied  them 
oft,  when  they  have  sent  for  it,  and  it  have  been 
in  the  house. 

Truly  a  pitiful  tale  of  shiftless  stinginess, 
of  attempted  extortion,  of  ill-regulated  ser- 
vice, and  of  overworked  housewifery  as  well. 

The  Reverend  Mr.  Eaton  did  not  escape 
punishment  for  his  sins.  After  much  obsti- 
nacy he  "  made  a  very  solid,  wise,  eloquent, 
and  serious  confession,  condemning  himself 
in  all  particulars."  The  court,  with  Win- 
throp  at  the  head,  bore  lightly  upon  him  after 
this  confession,  and  yet  when  sentence  of  ban- 
ishment from  the  college,  and  restriction  from 
teaching  within  the  jurisdiction,  was  passed, 
and  he  was  fined  £30,  he  did  not  give  glory 
to  God  as  was  expected,  but  turned  away 
with  a  discontented  look.  Then  the  church 
took  the  matter  up  to  discipline  him,  and  the 
schoolmaster  promptly  ran  away,  leaving 
debts  of  a  thousand  pounds. 

The 


BOSTON  NEIGHBORS.  129 

The  last  scene  in  the  life  of  Mrs.  Eaton 
may  be  given  in  Winthrop's  words  :  — 

Mr.  Nathaniel  Eaton  being  come  to  Virginia, 
took  upon  him  to  be  a  minister  there,  but  was 
given  up  to  extreme  pride  and  sensuality,  being 
usually  drunken,  as  the  custom  is  there.  He  sent 
for  his  wife  and  children.  Her  friends  here  per- 
suaded her  to  stay  awhile,  but  she  went,  notwith- 
standing, and  the  vessel  was  never  heard  of 
after. 

So  you  see  she  had  friends  and  neighbors 
who  wished  her  to  remain  in  New  England 
with  them,  and  who  may  have  loved  her  in 
spite  of  the  sour  bread,  and  scant  beer,  and 
bad  fish,  that  she  doled  out  to  the  college 
students. 

There  was  one  visitor  who  flashed  upon 
this  chill  New  England  scene  like  a  brilliant 
tropical  bird ;  with  all  the  subtle  fascination 
of  a  foreigner  ;  speaking  a  strange  language ; 
believing  a  wicked  Popish  faith ;  and  en- 
glamoured  with  the  romance  of  past  adven- 
ture, with  the  excitement  of  incipient  war. 
This  was  Madam  La  Tour,  the  young  wife 
of  one  of  the  rival  French  governors  of  Aca- 
dia.  The  relations  of  Massachusetts,  of  Bos- 
ton town,  to  the  quarrels  of  these  two  ambi- 
tious 


130     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

tious  and  unscrupulous  Frenchmen,  La  Tour 
and  D'Aulnay,  form  one  of  the  most  curious 
and  interesting  episodes  in  the  history  of  the 
colony. 

Many  unpleasant  and  harassing  complica- 
tions and  annoyances  had  arisen  between  the 
French  and  English  colonists,  in  the  more 
northern  plantations,  when,  in  1643,  in  June, 
Governor  La  Tour  surprised  his  English 
neighbors  by  landing  in  Boston  "  with  two 
friars  and  two  women  sent  to  wait  upon  La 
Tour  His  Lady  "  — and  strange  sights  they 
truly  were  in  Boston.  He  came  ashore  at 
Governor  Winthrop's  garden  (now  Fort  Win- 
throp),  and  his  arrival  was  heralded  by  a 
frightened  woman,  one  Mrs.  Gibbons,  who 
chanced  to  be  sailing  in  the  bay,  and  saw  the 
approach  of  the  French  boat,  and  hastened 
to  warn  the  Governor.  Perhaps  Mrs.  Gib- 
bons had  a  premonitory  warning  of  the 
twenty-five  hundred  pounds  her  husband 
was  to  lose  at  a  later  date  through  his  con- 
fidence in  the  persuasive  Frenchman.  Gov- 
ernor and  Madam  Winthrop  and  their  two 
sons  and  a  daughter-in-law  were  sitting  in 
the  Governor's  garden  in  the  summer  sun- 
shine, and  though  thoroughly  surprised,  they 

greeted 


BOSTON  NEIGHBORS.  131 

greeted  the  unexpected  visitor,  La  Tour, 
with  civilities,  and  escorted  him  to  Boston 
town,  not  without  some  internal  tremors  and 
much  deep  mortification  of  the  Governor 
when  he  thought  of  the  weakness  and  pov- 
erty of  Boston,  with  Castle  Island  deserted, 
as  was  plainly  shown  to  the  foreigner  by  the 
lack  of  any  response  to  his  salute  of  guns ; 
and  the  inference  was  quick  to  come  that  the 
Frenchman  "might  have  spoiled  Boston." 

But  La  Tour's  visit  was  most  friendly ;  all 
he  wished  was  free  mercature  and  the  cooper- 
ation of  the  English  colony.  And  he  desired 
to  land  his  men  for  a  short  time,  that  they 
might  refresh  themselves  after  their  long 
voyage ;  "  so  they  landed  in  small  companies 
that  our  women  might  not  be  affrighted  with 
them."  And  the  Governor  dined  the  French 
officers,  and  the  New  England  warriors  of 
the  train-band  entertained  the  visiting  Gallic 
soldiers,  and  they  exercised  and  trained  be- 
fore each  other,  all  in  true  Boston  hospitable 
fashion,  as  is  the  custom  to  this  day.  And 
the  Governor  bourgeoned  with  as  much  of  an 
air  of  importance  as  possible,  "  being  regu- 
larly attended  with  a  good  guard  of  halberts 
and  musketeers  ; "  and  thus  tried  to  live  down 

the 


132     COLONIAL   DAMES  AND    GOODWIVES. 

the  undignified  heralding  of  a  fellow-governor 
by  a  badly  scared  woman  neighbor.  And  the 
cunning  Frenchman,  as  did  another  of  his 
race,  "with  sugared  words  sought  to  addulce 
all  matters."  He  flattered  the  sober  Boston 
magistrates,  and  praised  everything  about 
the  Boston  army,  and  "  showed  much  admira- 
tion professing  he  could  not  have  believed  it, 
if  he  had  not  seen  it."  And  the  foreigners 
were  so  well  treated  (though  Winthrop  was 
blamed  afterwards  by  stern  Endicott  and  the 
Rome-hating  ministers)  that  they  came  again 
the  following  summer,  when  La  Tour  asked 
material  assistance.  He  received  it,  and  he 
lingered  till  autumn,  and  barely  eight  days 
after  he  left,  Madam  La  Tour  landed  in  Bos- 
ton from  London  ;  and  strange  and  sad  must 
the  little  town  have  seemed  to  her  after  her 
past  life.  She  was  in  a  state  of  much  anger, 
and  at  once  brought  suit  against  the  master 
of  the  ship  for  not  carrying  her  and  her  be- 
longings to  the  promised  harbor  in  Acadia ; 
for  trading  on  the  way  until  she  nearly  fell 
into  the  hands  of  her  husband's  enemy, 
D'Aulnay.  The  merchants  of  Charlestown 
and  Salem  sided  with  the  ship's  captain. 
The  solid  men  of  Boston  gallantly  upheld 

and 


BOSTON  NEIGHBORS.  133 

and  assisted  the  lady.  The  jury  awarded  her 
two  thousand  pounds  damages,  and  bitterly 
did  one  of  the  jury  —  Governor  Winthrop's 
son  —  suffer  for  it,  for  he  was  afterwards 
arrested  in  London,  and  had  to  give  bond 
for  four  thousand  pounds  to  answer  to  a  suit 
in  the  Court  of  Admiralty  about  the  Boston 
decision  in  favor  of  the  Lady  La  Tour. 

In  the  mean  time  ambassadors  from  the 
rival  Acadian  governor,  D'Aulnay,  arrived 
in  New  England,  and  were  treated  with 
much  honor  and  consideration  by  the  diplo- 
matic Boston  magistrates.  I  think  I  can 
read  between  the  lines  that  the  Bostonians 
really  liked  La  Tour,  who  must  have  had 
much  personal  attraction  and  magnetism; 
but  they  feared  D'Aulnay,  who  had  brought 
against  the  Massachusetts  government  a 
claim  of  eight  thousand  pounds  damages. 
The  Governor  sent  to  D'Aulnay  a  propiti- 
atory gift  of  "  a  very  fair  new  sedan  chair  (of 
no  use  to  us),"  and  I  should  fancy  scarcely 
of  much  more  use  in  Acadia ;  and  which 
proved  a  very  cheap  way  of  staving  off  pay- 
ing the  eight  thousand  pounds. 

Madam  La  Tour  sailed  off  at  last  with 
three  laden  ships  to  her  husband,  in  spite 

of 


134     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

of  D'Aulnay's  dictum  that  "  she  was  known 
to  be  the  cause  of  all  her  husband's  con- 
tempt   and    rebellion,   and    therefore    they 
could  not   let  her  go  to  him."     La  Tour's 
stronghold  was  captured  shortly  after  "  by 
assault  and  scalado "  when  he  was  absent, 
and  his  jewels,  plate,  and  furniture  to  the 
amount  of  ten  thousand  pounds  were  seized, 
and   his  wife  too;   and   she  died   in  three 
weeks,  of   a   broken  heart,  and  "her  little 
child  and  gentlewomen  were  sent  to  France." 
I  think  these  Boston  neighbors  were  en- 
titled to  a  little   harmless  though  exciting 
gossip  two  or  three  years  later,  when  they 
learned    that    after  D'Aulnay's    death   the 
fascinating  widower  La  Tour  had  promptly 
married   Widow  D'Aulnay,   thus    regaining 
his  jewels  and  plate,  and  both  had 
settled  down  to  a  long  and 
peaceful  life  in  Nova 
Scotia. 


I 


CHAPTER  V. 

A  FEARFULL  FEMALE  TRAVAILLER. 

N    the   autumn   and  winter  of  the   year        , 
1704,  Madam  Sarah  Knight,  a  resident 


of  Boston,  made  a  journey  on  horseback 
from  Boston  to  New  York,  and  returned  in 
the  same  manner.  It  was  a  journey  difficult 
and  perilous,  "  full  of  buggbears  to  a  fearfull 
female  travailler,"  and  which  "startled  a 
masculine  courage,"  but  which  was  per- 
formed by  this  woman  with  the  company 
and  protection  only  of  hired  guides,  the 
"  Western  Post,"  or  whatever  chance  travel- 
ler she  might  find  journeying  her  way,  at 
a  time  when  brave  men  feared  to  travel 
through  New  England,  and  asked  for  public 
prayers  in  church  before  starting  on  a  jour- 
ney of  twenty  miles.  She  was  probably  the 
first  woman  who  made  such  a  journey,  in 
such  a  manner,  in  this  country. 

Madam  Knight  was  the  daughter  of  Cap- 
tain Kemble,  of  Boston,  who  was  in  1656  set 

two 


136     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

two  hours  in  the  public  stocks  as  a  punish- 
ment for  his  "  lewd  and  unseemly  behavior," 
which  consisted  in  his  kissing  his  wife  "  pub- 
licquely"  on  the  Sabbath  Day,  upon  the 
doorstep  of  his  house,  when  he  had  just 
returned  from  a  voyage  and  absence  of  three 
years. 

The  diary  which  Madam  kept  on  this 
eventful  trip  contains  the  names  of  no  per- 
sons of  great  historical  interest,  though 
many  of  historical  mention  ;  but  it  is  such  a 
vivacious  and  sprightly  picture  of  the  cus- 
toms of  the  time,  and  such  a  valuable  de- 
scription of  localities  as  they  then  appeared, 
that  it  has  an  historical  interest  of  its  own, 
and  is  a  welcome  addition  to  the  few  diaries 
and  records  of  the  times  which  we  possess. 

Everything  was  not  all  serene  and  pleas- 
ant in  the  years  1704  and  1705  in  New 
England.  Events  had  occurred  which  could 
not  have  been  cheerful  for  Madam  Knight 
to  think  of  when  riding  through  the  lonely 
Narragansett  woods  and  along  the  shores  of 
the  Sound.  News  of  the  frightful  Indian 
massacre  at  Deerfield  had  chilled  the  very 
hearts  of  the  colonists.  At  Northampton 
shocking  and  most  unexpected  cruelties  had 

been 


A  FEARFULL  FEMALE  TRAVAILLER.    137 

been  perpetrated  by  the  red  men.  At  Lan- 
caster, not  any  too  far  from  Boston,  the  In- 
dians had  been  most  obstreperous.  We  can 
imagine  Madam  Knight  had  no  very  pleas- 
ant thoughts  of  these  horrors  when  she 
wrote  her  description  of  the  red  men  whom 
she  saw  in  such  numbers  in  Connecticut. 
Bears  and  wolves,  too,  abounded  in  the  lonely 
woods  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut. 
The  howls  of  wolves  were  heard  every  night, 
and  rewards  were  paid  by  New  England 
towns  for  the  heads  of  wolves  that  were 
killed,  provided  the  heads  were  brought  into 
town  and  nailed  to  the  side  of  the  meeting- 
house. Twenty-one  years  later  than  Madam 
Knight's  journey,  in  1725,  twenty  bears  were 
killed  in  one  week  in  September,  within  two 
miles  of  Boston,  so  says  the  History  of  Rox- 
bury ;  and  all  through  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury bears  were  hunted  and  killed  in  upper 
Narragansett.  Hence  "buggbears"  were 
not  the  only  bears  to  be  dreaded  on  the 
lonely  journey. 

The  year  1704  was  memorable  also  because 
it  gave  birth  to  the  first  newspaper  in  the 
colonies,  the  Boston  News-Letter.  Only  a 
few  copies  were  printed  each  week,  and  each 

copy 


138     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

copy  contained  but  four  or  five  square  feet 
of  print,  and  the  first  number  contained  but 
one  advertisement  —  that  of  the  man  who 
printed  it. 

When  Madam  Knight's  journal  was  pub- 
lished in  New  York  by  Mr.  Theodore  Dwight, 
in  1825,  the  editor  knew  nothing  of  the  dia- 
rist, not  even  her  family  name;  hence  it 
was  confidently  believed  by  many  that  the 
journal  was  merely  a  clever  and  entertaining 
fiction.  In  1852,  however,  Miss  Caulkins 
published  her  history  of  the  town  of  New 
London,  and  contradicted  that  belief,  for  she 
gave  an  account  of  the  last  days  of  Madam 
Knight,  which  were  spent  in  Norwich  and 
New  London.  Madam  Knight's  daughter 
married  the  Colonel  Livingston  who  is  men- 
tioned in  the  journal,  and  left  no  children. 
From  a  descendant  of  Mrs.  Livingston's 
administratrix,  Mrs.  Christopher,  the  manu- 
script of  the  journal  was  obtained  for  pub- 
lication in  1825,  it  having  been  carefully 
preserved  all  those  years.  In  Blackwood's 
Magazine  for  the  same  year  an  article  ap- 
peared, entitled  Travelling  in  America,  which 
reprinted  nearly  all  of  Madam  Knight's  jour- 
nal, and  which  showed  a  high  appreciation 

of 


A  FEARFULL  FEMALE  TRAVAILLER.    139 

of  its  literary  and  historical  merits.  In  1858 
it  was  again  printed  by  request  inLittell's 
Living  Age,  with  some  notes  of  Madam 
Knight's  life,  chiefly  compiled  from  Miss 
Caulkins'  History  of  New  London,  and  again 
provoked  much  inquiry  and  discussion.  Re- 
cently a  large  portion  of  the  journal  has 
been  reprinted  in  the  Library  of  American 
Literature,  with  many  alterations,  however, 
in  the  spelling,  use  of  capitals,  and  punctua- 
tion, thus  detracting  much  from  the  interest 
and  quaintness  of  the  work;  and  most  un- 
necessarily, since  it  is  perfectly  easy  to  read 
and  understand  it  as  first  printed,  when, 
as  the  editor  said,  "the  original  orthogra- 
phy was  carefully  preserved  for  fear  of  intro- 
ducing any  unwarrantable  modernism." 

The  first  edition  is  now  seldom  seen  for 
sale,  and  being  rare  is  consequently  high- 
priced.  The  little  shabby,  salmon-colored 
copy  of  the  book  which  I  saw  was  made  in- 
teresting by  two  manuscript  accounts  of 
Sarah  Knight,  which  were  inserted  at  the 
end  of  the  book,  and  which  are  very  valua- 
ble, since  they  give  positive  proof  of  the 
reality  of  the  fair  traveller,  as  well  as  addi- 
tional facts  of  her  life. 

The 


140     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

The  first  account  was  in  a  fine  old-fash- 
ioned, unpunctuated  handwriting,  on  yellow, 
time-stained  paper,  and  read  thus  :  — 

Madam  Knight  was  born  in  Boston  She  was 
the  daughter  of  Capt.  Kemble  who  was  a  rich 
merchant  of  Boston  he  was  a  native  of  Great 
Britain  settled  in  Boston  built  him  a  large  house 
for  that  day  near  New  North  Square  in  the  year 
1676  this  daughter  Sarah  Kemble  was  married 
to  a  son  of  a  London  trader  by  the  name  of 
Knight  he  died  abroad  and  left  her  a  smart 
young  widow  in  October  1703  she  made  a  jour- 
ney to  New  York  to  claim  some  property  of  his 
there.  She  returned  on  horse-backe  March  1705 
Soon  after  her  return  she  opened  a  school  for 
children  Dr.  Frankelin  and  Dr  Saml  Mather 
secured  their  first  rudiments  of  Education  from 
her  her  parents  both  died  and  as  She  was  the 
only  child  they  left  she  continued  to  keep  school 
in  the  Mansion  house  till  the  year  1714.  She 
then  sold  the  estate  to  Peter  Papillion  he  died 
not  long  after  in  the  year  1736  Thomas  Hutchin- 
son  Esqr  purchased  the  estate  of  John  Wolcott, 
who  was  administrator  of  the  Papillion  estate  Mr 
Hutchinson  gave  the  estate  to  his  daughter  Han- 
nah who  was  the  wife  of  Dr  Saml  Mather.  The 
force  of  Madam  Knight's  Diamond  Ring  was 
displayed  on  several  panes  of  glass  in  the  old 

house 


A  FEARFULL  FEMALE  TRAVAILLER.     141 

house  in  the  year  1763  Dr  Mather  had  the  house 
new  glazed  and  one  pane  of  glass  was  preserved 
as  a  curiosity  for  years  till  1775  it  was  lost  at  the 
conflagration  when  Charlestown  was  burnt  by 
the  British  June  i7th.  The  lines  on  the  pane  of 
glass  were  committed  to  memory  by  the  present 
writer.  She  was  an  original  genius  our  ideas  of 
Madam  are  formed  from  hearing  Dr  Frankelin 
and  Dr  Mather  converse  about  their  old  school 
misstress 

Through  many  toils  and  many  frights 
I  have  returned  poor  Sarah  Knights 
Over  great  rocks  and  many  stones 
God  has  preserv'd  from  fractur'd  bones 

as  spelt  on  the  pane  of  glass. 

Underneath  this  account  was  written  in 
the  clear,  distinct  chirography  of  Isaiah 
Thomas,  the  veteran  printer,  this  endorse- 
ment :  — 

The  above  was  written  by  Mrs.  Hannabell 
Crocker,  of  Boston,  granddaughter  of  the  Rev. 
Cotton  Mather,  and  presented  to  me  by  that 
lady.  —  ISAIAH  THOMAS. 

The  other  manuscript  account  is  substan- 
tially the  same,  though  in  a  different  hand- 
writing ;  it  tells  of  the  pane  of  glass  with  the 
rhymed  inscription  being  "preserved  as  a 
curiosity  by  an  antiquicrity "  (which  is  a 

delightful 


142     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

delightful  and  useful  old  word-concoction), 
"until  the  British  set  fire  to  the  town,"  in 
Revolutionary  times,  and  "Poor  Madam 
Knight's  poetrys,  with  other  curiosities,  were 
consumed."  It  says,  "She  obtained  the 
honorable  title  of  Madam  by  being  a  famous 
schoolmistress  in  her  day.  She  taught  Dr. 
Franklin  to  write.  She  was  highly  respected 
by  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  as  a  woman  of  good 
wit  &  pleasant  humour." 

Sarah  Knight  was  born  in  1666,  and  thus 
was  about  thirty-eight  years  old  when  she 
made  her  "perilous  journey."  She  started 
October  2d,  and  did  not  reach  New  York 
until  December  6th.  Of  course  much  of 
this  time  was  spent  visiting  friends  and 
kinsfolk  in  New  London  and  New  Haven, 
and  often,  too,  she  had  to  wait  to  obtain 
companion  travellers.  She  rode  upon  the 
first  night  of  her  journey  until  very  late  in 
order  to  "overtake  the  post,"  and  this  is  the 
account  of  her  reception  at  her  first  lodging- 
place  :  — 

My  guide  dismounted  and  very  complasently 
and  shewed  the  door  signing  to  me  with  his  hand 
to  Go  in,  which  I  Gladly  did.  But  had  not  gone 
many  steps  into  the  room  ere  I  was  interrogated 

by 


A  FEAR  FULL  FEMALE  TRAVAILLER.    143 

by  a  young  Lady  I  understood  afterwards  was 
the  Eldest  daughter  of  the  family,  with  these, 
or  words  to  this  purpose,  (viz)  Law  for  mee  — 
what  in  the  world  brings  you  here  at  this  time-a- 
night ?  I  never  see  a  woman  on  the  Rode  so 
Dreadfull  late  in  all  my  Varsall  Life.  Who  are 
You  ?  Where  are  you  going  ?  I  'm  scar'd  out  of 
my  witts  —  with  much  now  of  the  same  Kind 
I  stood  aghast  Prepareing  no  reply  —  when  in 
come  my  Guide  —  to  him  Madam  turn'd  roreing 
out :  Lawfull  heart  John  is  it  You  ?  how  de  do  ? 
Where  in  the  world  are  you  going  with  this  wo- 
man? Who  is  She?  John  made  no  Ans'r  but 
sat  down  in  the  corner,  fumbled  out  his  black 
Junk,  and  saluted  that  instead  of  Debb.  She 
then  turned  agen  to  mee  and  fell  anew  into  her 
silly  questions  without  asking  mee  to  sit  down. 
I  told  her  she  treated  mee  very  Rudely  and  I  did 
not  think  it  my  duty  to  answer  her  unmannerly 
Questions.  But  to  gett  ridd  of  them  I  told  her 
I  come  there  to  have  the  Posts  company  with 
me  to-morrow  on  my  Journey  &c.  Miss  stared 
awhile,  drew  a  chair  bid  me  sitt  And  then  run 
upstairs  and  putts  on  two  or  three  Rings  (or  else 
I  had  not  seen  them  before)  and  returning  sett 
herself  just  before  me  shewing  the  way  to  Red- 
ing, that  I  might  see  her  Ornaments. 

It  appears  from  this  account  that  human 

nature 


144     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

nature,  or  rather  feminine  love  of  display, 
was  the  same  in  colonial  times  as  in  the 
present  day. 

Very  vivid  are  her  descriptions  of  the  va- 
rious beds  upon  which  she  reposed.  This  is 
her  entry  in  her  diary  after  the  first  night  of 
her  journey  :  — 

I  pray'd  Miss  to  shew  me  where  I  must  Lodg. 
Shee  conducted  me  to  a  parlour  in  a  little  back 
Lento,  which  was  almost  filled  with  the  bedstead, 
which  was  so  high  that  I  was  forced  to  climb 
on  a  chair  to  gitt  up  to  ye  wretched  bed  that 
lay  on  it,  on  which  having  Strecht  my  tired 
Limbs,  and  lay'd  my  head  on  a  Sad-colour'd 
pillow,  I  began  to  think  on  the  transactions  of 
ye  past  day. 

We  can  imagine  her  (if  such  an  intrusive 
fancy  is  not  impertinent  after  one  hundred 
and  eighty  years),  attired  in  her  night-hood 
and  her  "flowered  calico  night-rayle  with 
high  collared  neck,"  climbing  wearily  upon 
a  chair  and  thence  to  the  mountainous  bed 
with  its  dingy  pillow.  The  fashion  of  wear- 
ing "immoderate  great  rayles "  had  been 
prohibited  by  law  in  Massachusetts  in  1634, 
but  the  garment  mentioned  must  have  been 
some  kind  of  a  loose  gown  worn  in  the  day- 
time, 


A  FEARFULL  FEMALE  TRAVAILLER.    145 

time,  for  we  cannot  fancy  that  even  the  med- 
dlesome interference  and  aspiring  ambition 
for  omnipotence  of  those  Puritan  magistrates 
would  make  them  dare  to  attempt  to  con- 
trol what  kind  of  a  nightgown  a  woman 
should  wear. 

Here  is  another  vivid  description  of  a 
night's  lodging,  where  her  room  was  shared, 
as  was  the  country  custom  of  that  time  (and 
indeed  for  many  years  later),  by  the  men 
who  had  journeyed  with  her :  — 

Arriving  at  my  apartment  found  it  to  be  a 
little  Lento  Chamber  furnished  amongst  other 
Rubbish  with  a  High  Bedd  and  a  Low  one,  a 
Long  Table,  a  Bench  and  a  Bottomless  chair. 
Little  Miss  went  to  scratch  up  my  Kennell 
which  Russelled  as  if  shee  'd  bin  in  the  Barn 
amongst  the  Husks,  and  supose  such  was  the 
contents  of  the  tickin  —  nevertheless  being  ex- 
ceeding weary-down  I  laid  my  poor  Carkes 
(never  more  tired)  and  found  my  Covering  as 
scanty  as  my  Bed  was  hard.  Anon  I  heard  an- 
other Russelling  noise  in  Ye  Room  —  called  to 
know  the  matter  —  Little  Miss  said  shee  was 
making  a  bed  for  the  -men  ;  who,  when  they  were 
in  Bed  complained  their  leggs  lay  out  of  it  by 
reason  of  its  shortness  —  my  poor  bones  com- 
plained bitterly  not  being  used  to  such  Lodgings, 

and 


146     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

and  so  did  the  man  who  was  with  us  ;  and  poor 
I  made  but  one  Grone,  which  was  from  the  time 
I  went  to  bed  to  the  time  I  Riss,  which  was 
about  three  in  the  morning,  Setting  up  by  the 
Fire  till  Light. 

The  word  "  lento,"  or  "lean  to,"  was  some- 
times called  "  linter,"  and  you  will  still  hear 
old-fashioned  or  aged  country-people  use  the 
word.  The  "  lean-to  "  was  the  rear  portion 
of  a  form  of  house  peculiar  to  New  England, 
which  was  two  stories  high  in  front,  with  a 
roof  which  sloped  down  from  a  steep  gable 
to  a  very  low  single  story  at  the  rear. 

Madam  Sarah  speaks  with  some  surprise 
throughout  her  travels  of  the  height  of  the 
beds,  so  it  is  evident  that  very  towering  beds 
were  not  in  high  fashion  in  Boston  in  1704, 
in  spite  of  the  exceeding  tall  four-posters 
that  have  descended  to  us  from  our  ancestors, 
and  which  surely  no  one  could  mount  in  mod- 
ern days  without  a  chair  as  an  accessory. 
Even  a  chair  was  not  always  a  sufficient 
stepping-block  by  the  bedsides  that  Madam 
Sarah  found,  for  she  thus  writes  :  "  He  in- 
vited us  to  his  house,  and  shewed  me  two 
pair  of  stairs,  viz,  one  up  the  loft,  and  tother 
up  the  Bedd,  which  was  as  hard  as  it  was 

high 


A  FEARFULL  FEMALE   TRAVAILLER.     147 

high,  and  warmed  with  a  hott  stone  at  the 
foot." 

After  the  good  old  Puritan  custom  of  con- 
tumelious reviling,  in  which  clergymen,  lay- 
men, and  legal  lights  alike  joined,  Madam 
Knight  could  show  a  rare  choice  of  epithets 
and  great  fluency  of  uncomplimentary  de- 
scription when  angered.  Having  expected 
to  lodge  at  the  house  of  a  Mr.  DeVille  in 
Narragansett,  and  being  refused,  she  writes 
thus  of  the  DeVilles  :  — 

I  questioned  whether  we  ought  to  go  to  the 
Devil  to  be  helpt  out  of  the  affliction.  However, 
like  the  Rest  of  Deluded  souls  that  post  to  ye 
Infernall  denn,  Wee  made  all  possible  speed  to 
this  Devil's  Habitation ;  where  alliting,  in  full 
assurance  of  good  accommodation,  wee  were  go- 
ing in.  But  meeting  his  two  daughters,  as  I  sup- 
osed  twins,  they  so  neerly  resembled  each  other 
both  in  features  and  habit  and  look't  as  old 
as  the  Divel  himself,  and  quite  as  Ugly.  We 
desired  entertainment,  but  could  hardly  get  a 
word  out  of  'um,  till  with  our  Importunity  tell- 
ing them  our  necessity  &c  they  call'd  the  old 
Sophister,  who  was  as  sparing  of  his  words  as 
his  daughters  had  bin,  and  no  or  none,  was  the 
reply's  he  made  us  to  our  demands.  Hee  dif- 
fered 


148     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

fered  only  in  this  from  the  old  fellow  in  tother 
Country,  hee  let  us  depart.  However  I  thought 
it  proper  to  warn  poor  Travaillers  to  endeavour 
to  Avoid  falling  into  circumstances  like  ours, 
which  at  our  next  Stage  I  sat  down  and  did  as 
followeth :  — 

May  all  that  dread  the  cruel  fiend  of  night 
Keep  on  and  not  at  this  curst  Mansion  light 
Tis  Hell :  Tis  Hell :  and  Devills  here  do  dwell 
Here  Dwells  the  Devill  —  surely  this  is  Hell. 
Nothing  but  Wants  :  a  drop  to  cool  yo're  Tongue 
Cant  be  procured  those  cruel  Fiends  among 
Plenty  of  horrid  grins  and  looks  sevear 
Hunger  and  thirst,  But  pitty's  banish'd  here. 
The  Right  hand  keep,  if  Hell  on  Earth  you  fear  — 

Madam  Knight  had  a  habit  of  "dropping 
into  poetry"  very  readily  and  upon  almost 
any  subject.  Upon  the  moon,  upon  poverty, 
even  upon  the  noise  of  drunken  topers  in  the 
next  room  to  her  own.  The  night-scene  that 
brought  forth  the  rhymes  upon  rum  was 
graced  by  a  conversation  upon  the  derivation 
of  the  word  Narragansett,  and  her  report  of 
it  is  of  much  interest,  and  is  always  placed 
among  the  many  and  various  authorities  for, 
and  suggestions  about,  the  meaning  of  the 
word :  — 

I  went  to  bed  which  tho'  pretty  hard  Yet  neet 

and 


A   FEARFULL  FEMALE    TKAVAILLER.     149 

and  handsome  but  I  could  get  no  sleep  because 
of  the  Clamor  of  some  of  the  Town-tope-ers  in 
next  Room  who  were  entered  into  a  strong  de- 
bate concerning  ye  Signifycation  of  the  name  of 
their  Country  (viz)  Narraganset.  One  said  it  was 
named  so  by  ye  Indians  because  there  grew  a 
Brier  there  of  a  prodigious  Highth  and  bigness, 
the  like  hardly  ever  known,  called  by  the  Indians 
Narragansett.  And  quotes  an  Indian  of  so  Bar- 
berous  a  name  for  his  Author  that  I  could  not 
write  it.  His  Antagonist  Replyd  No.  —  It  was 
from  a  spring  it  had  its  name,  which  he  well  knew 
where  it  was,  which  was  extreem  cold  in  summer, 
and  as  Hott  as  could  be  imagined  in  the  winter 
which  was  much  resorted  to  by  the  natives  and 
by  them  called  Narragansett  (Hott  &  Cold)  and 
that  was  the  originall  of  their  places  name  — 
with  a  thousand  Impertinances  not  worth  notice, 
which  He  uttered  with  such  a  Roreing  voice  & 
Thundering  blows  with  the  fist  of  wickedness  on 
the  Table  that  it  pierced  my  very  head.  I  heart- 
ily fretted  and  wisht  'um  tonguetyed ;  but  with 
little  success. 

They  kept  calling  for  tother  Gill  which  while 
they  were  swallowing,  was  some  Intermission  But 
presently  like  Oyle  to  fire  encreased  the  flame. 
I  set  my  Candle  on  a  Chest  by  the  bedside,  and 
setting  up  fell  to  my  old  way  of  composing  my 
Resentments  in  the  following  manner :  — 


I5O     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

I  ask  thy  aid  O  Potent  Rum 

To  charm  these  wrangling  Topers  Dum 

Thou  hast  their  Giddy  Brains  possest 

The  man  confounded  with  the  Beast 

And  I,  poor  I,  can  get  no  rest 

Intoxicate  them  with  thy  fumes 

O  still  their  Tongues  till  morning  comes 

And  I  know  not  but  my  wishes  took  effect  for 
the  dispute  soon  ended  with  tother  Dram. 

To  one  who,  unused  to  venturing  abroad 
in  boats  on  stormy  waters,  has  trusted  her 
bodily  safety  to  one  of  those  ticklish  Indian 
vehicles,  a  canoe,  this  vivid  account  of  the 
sensations  of  an  early  female  colonist  in  a 
similar  situation  may  prove  of  interest ;  nor 
do  I  think,  after  the  lapse  of  centuries,  could 
the  description  be  improved  by  the  added 
words  of  our  newer  and  more  profuse  vocab- 
ulary :  — 

The  Cannoo  was  very  small  &  shallow  so  that 
when  we  were  in  she  seemd  redy  to  take  in  water 
which  greatly  terrify'd  me,  and  caused  me  to  be 
very  circumspect,  sitting  with  my  hands  fast  on 
each  side,  my  eyes  stedy,  not  daring  so  much  as 
to  lodge  my  tongue  a  hairs  breadth  more  on  one 
side  of  my  mouth  than  tother,  nor  so  much  as 
think  on  Lotts  wife,  for  a  very  thought  would 

have  oversett  our  wherey. 

We 


A   FEARFULL  FEMALE    TRAVAILLER.     151 

We  are  so  accustomed  to  hearing  of  the 
great  veneration  and  respect  always  shown 
in  olden  times  by  children  toward  their  par- 
ents, and  the  dignified  reserve  and  absolute 
authority  of  parents  towards  children,  that 
the  following  scene  rather  shocks  our  estab- 
lished notions  :  — 

Thursday  about  3  in  the  afternoon  I  set  for- 
ward with  neighbour  Polly  &  Jemima  a  girl  about 
18  years  old,  who  her  father  said  he  had  been  to 
fetch  out  of  the  Narragan setts  and  said  they  had 
rode  thirty  miles  that  day  on  a  sorry  lean  Jade 
with  only  a  Bagg  under  her  for  a  pillion  which 
the  poor  Girl  often  complain'd  was  very  uneasy. 
Wee  made  Good  speed  along  wch  made  poor 
Jemima  make  many  a  sowr  face  the  mare  being 
a  very  hard  trotter,  and  after  many  a  hearty 
&  bitter  Oh  she  at  length  low'd  out:  Lawful 
Heart  father !  this  bare  mare  hurts  mee  Dingeely. 
I  'm  direfull  sore  I  vow,  with  many  words  to  that 
purpose.  Poor  Child  —  sais  Gaffer  —  she  us't  to 
serve  your  mother  so.  I  dont  care  how  mother 
ust  to  do,  quoth  Jemima  in  a  passionate  tone. 
At  which  the  old  man  Laught  and  kikt  his  Jade 
o'  the  side,  which  made  her  Jolt  ten  times  harder. 
About  seven  that  evening  we  came  to  New  Lon- 
don Ferry  here  by  reason  of  a  very  high  wind, 
we  mett  with  great  difficulty  in  getting  over.  The 

boat 


152     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

boat  tost  exceedingly  and  our  Horses  cappered 
at  a  very  Surprising  rate  and  set  us  all  in  a  fright 
especially  poor  Jemima  who  desired  father  to  say 
So  Jack !  to  the  Jade  to  make  her  stand.  But 
the  careless  parent,  taking  no  notice  of  her 
repeated  desires,  She  Rored  out  in  a  Pasionate 
manner  Pray  Suth  father  Are  you  deaf  ?  Say  So 
Jack  to  the  Jade  I  tell  you.  The  Dutiful  Parent 
obeyed  saying  So  Jack  So  Jack  as  gravely  as  if 
he  had  bin  saying  Chatchise  after  young  Miss 
who  with  her  fright  look't  all  the  Colours  of  ye 
Rainbow. 

It  is  very  evident  from  entries  in  her  Jour- 
nal that  Madam  Knight  thought  much  of 
gratifying  her  appetite,  for  the  food  she  ob- 
tained at  her  different  resting-places  is  often 
described.  She  says  :  — 

Landlady  told  us  shee  had  some  mutton  which 
shee  would  broil.  In  a  little  time  she  bro't  it  in 
but  it  being  pickled  and  my  Guide  said  it  smelt 
strong  of  head-sause  we  left  it  and  paid  six  pence 
apiece  for  our  dinners  which  was  only  smell. 

Again,  she  thus  describes  a  meal :  — 

Having  call'd  for  something  to  eat  the  woman 
bro't  in  a  Twisted  thing  like  a  cable,  but  some- 
thing whiter,  laying  it  on  the  bord,  tugg'd  for 
life  to  bring  it  into  a  capacity  to  spread  j  which 

having 


A  FEAR  FULL  FEMALE    TRAVAILLER.     153 

having  with  great  pains  accomplished  shee  served 
a  dish  of  Pork  and  Cabage  I  supose  the  remains 
of  Dinner.  The  sause  was  of  a  deep  purple 
which  I  tho't  was  boiled  in  her  dye  Kettle  ;  the 
bread  was  Indian  and  everything  on  the  Table 
service  agreeable  to  these.  I  being  hungry  gott 
a  little  down,  but  my  stomach  was  soon  cloy'd 
and  what  cabage  I  swallowed  served  me  for  a 
Cudd  the  whole  day  after. 

The  early  colonists  never  turned  very  read- 
ily to  Indian  meal  and  pumpkins  —  pumpions 
as  they  called  them  in  the  "times  wherein 
old  Pompion  was  a  saint ; "  and  Johnson, 
in  his  Wonder-  Working  Providence,  reproved 
them  for  making  a  jest  of  pumpkins,  since 
they  were  so  good  a  food.  Madam  Knight 
had  them  offered  to  her  very  often,  "  pump- 
kin sause"  and  "pumpkin  bred."  "We 
would  have  eat  a  morsell  ourselves  But  the 
Pumpkin  and  Indian-mixt  Bread  had  such  an 
aspect,  and  the  Bare-legg'd  Punch  so  awkerd 
or  rather  Awfull  a  sound  that  we  left  both." 

She  gives  a  glimpse  of  rather  awkward 
table-manners  when  she  complains  that  in 
Connecticut  masters  permitted  their  slaves 
to  sit  and  eat  with  them,  "  and  into  the  dish 
goes  the  black  Hoof  as  freely  as  the  white 

hand." 


154    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

hand."  Doubtless  in  those  comparatively 
forkless  days  fingers  were  very  freely  used 
at  the  table. 

She  tells  many  curious  facts  about  Con- 
necticut. Divorces  were  plentiful  in  that 
State,  as  they  are  at  the  present  day.  She 
writes :  — 

These  uncomely  Standaways  are  too  much  in 
Vogue  among  the  English  in  this  Indulgent  Col- 
ony as  their  Records  plentifully  prove,  and  that 
on  very  trivial  matters  of  which  some  have  been 
told  me,  but  are  not  Proper  to  be  Related  by  a 
Female  Pen. 

She  says  they  will  not  allow  harmless  kiss- 
ing among  the  young  people,  and  she  tells  of 
a  curious  custom  at  weddings,  where  the 
bridegroom  ran  away  and  had  to  be  chased 
and  dragged  back  by  force  to  the  bride. 

Her  descriptions  of  the  city  of  New 
York;  of  the  public  vendues  "where  they 
give  drinks ; "  of  the  Dutch  houses  and 
women ;  of  the  "  sley-riding "  where  she 
"  mett  fifty  or  sixty  sleys,"  are  all  very  en- 
tertaining. There  were  few  sleighs  in  Bos- 
ton at  that  date.  Everything  is  compared 
with  "ours  in  Boston,"  or  said  to  be  "not 
like  Boston,"  after  a  fashion  still  somewhat 

followed 


A  FEARFULL  FEMALE    TRAVAILLER.     155 

followed  by  the  Boston  "  Female  Pen  "  of 
the  present  day.  As  New  York  then  was 
only  a  small  town  of  five  thousand  inhab- 
itants, while  Big  Boston  possessed  ten  thou- 
sand inhabitants,  such  comparisons  were 
certainly  justifiable. 

We  must  give  her  vivid  and  vivacious 
picture  of  a  country  "lubber"  in  a  mer- 
chant's shop :  — 

In  comes  a  tall  country  fellow  with  his  Alfo- 
geos  full  of  Tobaco.  He  advanced  to  the  middle 
of  the  room,  makes  an  awkward  nodd  and  spit- 
ting a  large  deal  of  Aromatic  Tincture,  he  gave 
a  scrape  with  his  shovel-like  shoo,  leaving  a  small 
shovel-full  of  dirt  on  the  floor,  made  a  full  stop, 
hugging  his  own  pretty  body  with  his  hands 
under  his  arms,  Stood  Staring  round  him  like  a 
Catt  let  out  of  a  Baskett  At  last  like  the  crea- 
ture Balaam  rode  on  he  opened  his  mouth  and 
said  Have  you  any  Ribinen  for  Hat  bands  to  sell  I 
prayl  The  Questions  and  answers  about  the 
pay  being  past  the  Ribin  is  bro't  and  opened. 
Bumpkin  simpers,  cryes,  Its  confounded  Gay  I 
vow ;  and  beckoning  to  the  door  in  comes  Joan 
Tawdry,  dropping  about  50  curtsies,  and  stands 
by  him.  He  shews  her  the  Ribin.  Law  You, 
sais  shee,  its  right  Gent,  do  you  take  it,  its  dread- 
ful pretty.  Then  she  enquires :  Have  you  any 

hood 


156    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

hood  silk  I  pray  ?  which  being  brought  and 
bought.  Have  you  any  Thred  silk  to  sew  it  with  ? 
says  shee,  which  being  accomodated  with  they 
departed. 

Though  Madam  Knight  left  no  account 
of  the  costume  which  she  wore  on  her 
"perilous  journey,"  we  know  very  well  what 
the  fashions  of  the  time  were  and  of  what 
her  dress  consisted.  She  wore  a  woollen 
round-gown,  perhaps  of  camlet,  perhaps  of 
calimanco,  of  which  the  puffed  sleeves  came 
to  the  elbow  and  were  finished  with  knots 
of  ribbons  and  ruffles.  Riding-habits  were 
then  never  worn.  I  am  sure  she  did  not 
wear  a  neck-ruff  on  this  journey,  but  a  scarf 
or  neck-kerchief  or  "cross  cloth"  instead. 
Long  gloves  of  leather  or  kid  protected  her 
fair  hands,  and  came  to  the  elbow,  and  were 
firmly  secured  at  the  top  by  "  glove-tightens  " 
made  of  braided  black  horsehair.  A  pointed 
beaver  or  beaverette  hat  covered  her  head ; 
the  hat  and  peruke  had  not  then  reached  the 
excessive  size  which  made  them  for  a  lady's 
"riding  equipage"  so  bitterly  and  openly 
condemned  in  1737  as  an  exceeding  and 
abominable  affectation.  She  doubtless  wore 
instead  of  the  fine,  stately  peruke,  a  cap,  a 

"  round 


A  FEARFULL  FEMALE   TRAVAILLER.     157 

"  round  cap,"  which  did  not  cover  the  ears, 
or  a  "  strap  cap,"  which  came  under  the  chin ; 
or  perhaps  a  "quoif"  or  a  "cirfer" —  New 
England  French  for  coiffure.  During  her 
cold  winter  ride  home  she  surely  donned  a 
hood.  One  is  described  at  that  date  thus  : 
"A  woman's  worsted  camlet  riding-hood  of 
grayish  color  faced  with  crimson  coulour'd 
Persian."  Over  her  shoulders  she  wore  a 
heavy  woollen  short  cloak,  or  a  scarlet  "whit- 
tle," and  doubtless  also  added  a  "  drugget- 
petticoat  "  for  warmth,  or  a  "safeguard"  for 
protection  against  mud.  High-heeled  pointed 
shoes  of  leather,  with  knots  of  green  ribbon 
or  silver  buckles,  completed  Madam  Sarah's 
picturesque  and  comfortable  attire.  One 
other  useful  article  of  dress,  or  rather  of 
protection,  she  surely  as  a  lady  of  high  gen- 
tility carried  and  wore  :  a  riding-mask  made 
of  black  velvet  with  a  silver  mouthpiece,  or 
with  two  little  strings  with  a  silver  bead  at 
the  end,  which  she  placed  in  either  corner 
of  her  mouth,  to  hold  her  mask  firmly  in 
place. 

The  "  nagg  "  upon  which  Madam  rode  was 
without  doubt  a  pacer,  as  were  all  good  sad- 
dle-horses at  that  date.  No  one  making  any 

pretension 


158     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

pretension  to  fashion  or  good  style  would 
ride  upon  a  trotting-horse,  nor  indeed  until 
Revolutionary  times  was  a  trotter  regarded 
as  of  any  account  or  worth. 

I  do  not  think  Madam  Knight  had  a  Nar- 
ragansett  pacer,  for  as  soon  as  they  were 
raised  in  any  numbers  they  were  sent  at  once 
to  the  West  Indies  for  the  use  of  the  wives 
and  daughters  of  the  wealthy  sugar-planters, 
and  few  New  England  people  could  afford  to 
own  them.  The  "  horse  furniture  "  of  which 
she  speaks  included,  of  course,  her  side-sad- 
dle and  saddle-bag,  which  held  her  travelling- 
wardrobe  and  her  precious  journal. 

Madam  Sarah  Knight  did  not  end  her 
days  in  Boston.  She  removed  to  Norwich, 
Conn.,  and  in  1717  it  is  recorded  that  she 
gave  a  silver  cup  for  the  communion-service 
of  the  church  there.  The  town  in  gratitude, 
by  vote,  gave  her  liberty  to  "  sitt  in  the  pue 
where  she  was  used  to  sitt  in  ye  meeting 
house."  She  also  kept  an  inn  on  the  Liv- 
ingston Farm  near  New  London,  and  I 
doubt  not  a  woman  of  her  large  experience 
kept  a  good  ordinary.  No  rustling  beds,  no 
sad-colored  pillow-bears,  no  saucy  maids,  no 
noisy  midnight  topers,  no  doubtful  fricassees, 


A   FEAR  FULL  FEMALE    TRAVAILLER.     159 

no  pumpkin-bread,  and,  above  all,  no  bare- 
legged punch  in  her  house. 

It  is  painful  to  record,  however,  that  in 
1718  the  teacher  of  Benjamin  Franklin  and 
friend  of  Cotton  Mather  was  indicted  and 
fined  for  "selling  strong  liquor  to  Indians." 

Altogether,  Madam  Knight  was  far  ahead 

of  the  time  in  which  she  lived.     She  was  a 

woman  of  great  energy  and  talent.    She  kept 

a  school  when  a  woman-teacher  was  almost 

unheard  of.     She  ran  a  tavern,  a  shop.     She 

wrote  poetry  and  a  diary.     She  cultivated  a 

farm,  and  owned  mills,  and  speculated  largely 

in  Indian  lands,  and  was  altogether  a  sharp 

business-woman  ;  and  she  must  have 

been  counted  an  extraordinary 

character  in  those  early 

days. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

TWO   COLONIAL   ADVENTURESSES. 

A"  STRANGE  true  story  of  Louisiana  " 
so  furnished  with  every  attractive 
element  of  romance,  so  calculated  to  satisfy 
every  exaction  of  literary  art,  that  it  seems 
marvellous  it  has  not  been  eagerly  seized 
upon  and  frequently  utilized  by  dramatists 
and  novelists,  is  that  of  a  Louisiana  princess 
—  or  pretender  —  whose  death  in  a  Parisian 
convent  in  1771  furnished  a  fruitful  topic  of 
speculation  and  conversation  in  the  courts 
of  France,  Austria,  Russia,  and  Prussia. 
This  Louisiana  princess  (were  she  no  pre- 
tender) was  the  daughter-in-law  of  Peter  the 
Great  of  Russia,  wife  of  the  Grand  Duke 
Alexis,  and  mother  of  Peter  II.  of  Russia. 
The  story,  as  gathered  from  a  few  European 
authorities  and  some  old  French  chronicles 
and  histories  of  Louisiana,  is  this. 

The  Princess  Christine,  daughter  of  a  Ger- 
man princeling  and  wife  of  the  Grand  Duke 

Alexis, 


TWO   COLONIAL  ADVENTURESSES.     l6l 

Alexis,  is  said  by  Russian  official  and  histor- 
ical records  to  have  died  in  1716  after  a  short 
and  most  unhappy  married  life  with  a  brutal 
royal  profligate,  and  to  have  been  buried 
with  proper  court  honors  and  attendance. 
But  there  is  another  statement,  half-history, 
half-romance,  which  denies  that  she  died  at 
that  time,  and  asserts  that  her  death  and 
burial  were  but  a  carefully  planned  decep- 
tion, to  permit  her  to  escape  her  intolerable 
life  in  Russia,  and  only  concealed  her  suc- 
cessful flight  from  St.  Petersburg  and  the 
power  of  the  Russian  throne.  Aided  by  the 
famous  Countess  Konigsmark,  the  princess, 
after  some  delay  and  frightened  hiding  in 
France,  sailed  from  the  port  of  L'Orient, 
accompanied  by  an  old  devoted  court  re- 
tainer named  Walter.  Of  course  there  must 
always  be  a  lover  to  form  a  true  romance, 
and  a  young  officer  named  D'Aubant  suc- 
cessfully fills  that  r61e.  He  had  often  seen 
Christine  in  the  Russian  court,  and  had 
rescued  her  from  danger  when  she  was  hunt- 
ing in  the  Hartz  Mountains,  and  had  cherished 
for  her  a  deep  though  hopeless  love.  When 
the  news  of  her  death  came  to  the  know- 
ledge of  Chevalier  D'Aubant,  he  sadly  left 

the 


1 62     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

the  Czar's  service  and  went  to  France. 
Soon  after  he  chanced  to  see  at  the  cathe- 
dral in  Poitiers  a  woman  who  raised  her  veil, 
glanced  at  him  with  a  look  of  recognition, 
and  apparently  a  face  like  that  of  his  loved 
Christine.  After  long  search  for  the  un- 
known, he  found  her  temporary  home,  only 
to  learn  that  she,  with  her  father  Mons. 
De  L'Ecluse  (who  was  of  course  Walter), 
had  just  sailed  for  the  New  World.  But  the 
woman  of  the  house  gave  him  a  slip  of  paper 
which  the  fair  one  had  left  for  him  in  case 
he  called  and  asked  concerning  her.  On  it 
was  written  this  enigmatical  lure :  — 

I  have  drunk  of  the  waters  of  Lethe, 
Hope  yet  remains  to  me. 

Now,  he  would  not  have  been  an  ideal  court- 
lover,  nor  indeed  but  a  sorry  hero,  if,  after 
such  a  message,  he  had  not  promply  sailed 
after  the  possible  Christine.  He  learned 
that  the  vessel  which  bore  her  was  to  land 
at  Biloxi,  Louisiana.  He  sailed  for  the  same 
port  with  his  fortune  in  his  pockets.  But 
on  arriving  in  Louisiana,  Walter  (or  Mons. 
De  L'Ecluse)  had  taken  the  disguising  name 
of  Walter  Holden,  and  Christine  posed  as 
his  daughter,  Augustine  Holden;  so  her 

knight-errant 


TWO  COLONIAL   ADVENTURESSES.     163 

knight-errant  thus  lost  trace  of  her.  Chris- 
tine-Augustine and  her  father  settled  in  the 
Colonie  Roland  on  the  Red  River.  D'Au- 
bant,  with  sixty  colonists,  founded  a  settle- 
ment but  fifty  miles  away,  which  he  named 
the  Valley  of  Christine.  Of  course  in  due 
time  the  lovers  met,  and  disguise  was  impos- 
sible and  futile,  and  Augustine  confessed 
her  identity  with  the  Crown  Princess.  As 
her  husband  Alexis  had  by  this  time  con- 
veniently died  in  prison,  in  Moscow,  where 
he  had  been  tried  and  condemned  to  death 
(and  probably  been  privately  executed),  there 
was  no  reason,  save  the  memory  of  her  past 
exalted  position,  why  she  should  not  become 
the  wife  of  an  honest  planter.  They  were 
married  by  a  Spanish  priest,  and  lived  for 
twenty  happy  years  in  the  Valley  of  Chris- 
tine. 

But  D'Aubant's  health  failed,  and  he 
sought  physicians  in  Paris.  One  day  when 
Christine  was  walking  in  the  garden  of  the 
Tuileries,  with  her  two  daughters,  the  chil- 
dren of  D'Aubant,  the  German  conversation 
of  the  mother  attracted  the  attention  of  Mar- 
shal Saxe,  who  was  the  son  of  the  very 
Countess  Konigsmark  who  had  aided  Chris- 
tine's 


1 64     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

tine's  escape.  The  marshal  recognized  the 
princess  at  once,  in  spite  of  the  lapse  of 
years,  and  through  his  influence  with  Louis 
XV.  obtained  for  D'Aubant  a  commission  as 
major  of  troops,  and  the  office  of  governor 
of  the  Isle  of  Bourbon.  The  King  also 
informed  the  Empress  of  Austria,  who  was 
a  niece  of  Christine,  that  her  aunt  was  alive ; 
and  an  invitation  was  sent  from  the  Empress 
for  the  D'Aubant  family  to  become  resi- 
dents of  the  Austrian  Court.  They  remained, 
however,  at  the  Isle  of  Bourbon  until  the 
death  of  D'Aubant  and  the  two  daughters, 
when  Christine  came  to  Brunswick  and  was 
granted  a  pension  for  life  by  the  Empress. 
Her  death  in  a  convent,  and  her  burial,  took 
place  over  half  a  century  after  her  pre- 
tended legal  demise. 

This  is  the  Christine  of  romance,  of  court 
gossip,  of  court  credulity,  but  there  is  an- 
other aspect  of  her  story.  Judge  Martin 
has  written  a  standard  history  of  Louisiana. 
In  it  he  says :  — 

Two  hundred  German  settlers  of  Law's  grant 
were  landed  in  the  month  of  March  1721  at  Bi- 
loxi  out  of  the  twelve  hundred  who  had  been 
recruited.  There  came  among  the  German  new- 
comers 


TWO   COLONIAL  ADVENTURESSES.     165 

comers  a  female  adventurer.  She  had  been  at- 
tached to  the  wardrobe  of  the  wife  of  the  Czaro- 
witz  Alexis  Petrovitz,  the  only  son  of  Peter  the 
Great.  She  imposed  on  the  credulity  of  many 
persons,  particularly  on  that  of  an  officer  of  the 
garrison  of  Mobile  (called  by  Bossu,  the  Cheva- 
lier D'Aubant,  and  by  the  King  of  Prussia,  Wai- 
deck),  who,  having  seen  the  princess  at  St.  Peters- 
burg imagined  he  recognized  her  features  in 
those  of  her  former  servant,  and  gave  credit  to 
the  report  that  she  was  the  Duke  of  Wolfenbut- 
tels  daughter,  and  the  officer  married  her. 

Grimm  and  Voltaire  in  their  letters,  Le- 
vesque  in  his  History,  all  unite  in  pronoun- 
cing her  an  impostor.  But  you  can  choose 
your  own  estimate  of  this  creature  of  high 
romance  ;  if  you  elect  to  deem  her  a  prin- 
cess, you  find  yourself  in  the  goodly  com- 
pany of  the  King  of  France,  the  Empress  of 
Austria,  Marshal  Saxe,  and  a  vast  number 
of  other  folk  of  rank  and  intelligence. 

In  the  year  1771  there  was  sent  to  this 
country  from  England  a  woman  convict, 
who  had  in  her  enforced  home  a  most  ex- 
traordinary and  romantic  career  of  success- 
ful fraud. 

The  first  account  which  I  have  seen  of 

her 


1 66     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

her  was  printed  in  the  Gentleman's  Mag- 
azine in  1771,  and  told  simply  of  her  start- 
ling intrusion  into  the  Queen's  apartments 
in  London ;  but  Dr.  Doran's  Lives  of  the 
Queens  of  England  of  the  House  of  Han- 
over gives  this  account  of  this  interesting  bit 
of  Anglo-American  romance. 

Sarah  Wilson,  yielding  to  a  strong  temptation 
in  the  year  1771,  filched  one  or  two  of  the 
Queen's  jewels,  and  was  condemned  to  be  exe- 
cuted. It  was  considered  almost  a  violation  of 
justice  that  the  thief  should  be  saved  from  the 
halter  and  be  -transported  instead  of  hanged. 
She  was  sent  to  America,  where  she  was  allotted 
as  slave,  or  servant,  to  a  Mr.  Dwale,  Bud  Creek, 
Frederick  County.  Queen  Charlotte  would  have 
thought  nothing  more  of  her,  had  her  majesty 
not  heard  with  some  surprise,  that  her  sister 
Susannah  Caroline  Matilda  was  keeping  her 
court  in  the  plantations.  Never  was  surprise 
more  genuine  than  the  Queen's  ;  it  was  exceeded 
only  by  her  hilarity  when  it  was  discovered  that 
the  Princess  Susannah  was  simply  Sarah  Wilson, 
at  large.  That  somewhat  clever  girl  having 
stolen  a  Queen's  jewels,  thought  nothing,  after 
escaping  from  the  penal  service  to  which  she 
was  condemned,  of  passing  herself  off  as  a 
Queen's  sister.  The  Americans  were  not  so 

acute 


TWO  COLONIAL  ADVENTURESSES,     16? 

acute  as  their  descendants ;  so  in  love  were 
some  of  them  with  the  greatness  they  affected  to 
despise,  that  they  paid  royal  honors  to  the  clever 
impostor.  She  passed  the  most  joyous  of  sea- 
sons before  she  was  consigned  again  to  increase 
of  penalty  for  daring  to  pretend  relationship  with 
the  consort  of  King  George.  The  story  of  the 
presuming  girl,  whose  escapades,  however,  were 
not  fully  known  in  England  at  that  time,  served, 
as  far  as  knowledge  of  them  had  reached  the 
court,  to  amuse  the  gossips  who  had  assembled 
about  the  cradle  of  the  young  Elizabeth. 

In  this  account  of  Dr.  Doran's  there  are 
some  errors.  The  real  story  of  the  crime 
of  Sarah  Wilson  and  her  subsequent  career 
was  this.  In  August,  1 770,  a  strange  woman 
found  her  way  by  means  of  a  private  stair- 
case to  the  apartments  of  Queen  Charlotte. 
She  entered  a  room  where  the  Queen  and 
the  Duchess  of  Ancaster  were  sitting,  to 
their  alarm.  While  she  was  taking  a  lei- 
surely survey  of  the  contents  of  the  room, 
a  page  was  summoned,  who  expelled  the  in- 
truder, but  did  not  succeed  in  arresting  her. 
Shortly  after,  the  Queen's  apartments  were 
broken  into  by  a  thief,  who  stole  valuable 
jewels  and  a  miniature  of  the  Queen.  The 

thief 


1 68     COLONIAL   DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

thief  proved  to  be  a  woman  named  Sarah 
Wilson,  who  had  been  maid  of  the  Honorable 
Miss  Vernon,  and  this  thief  was  asserted  to 
be  the  inquisitive  intruder  whose  visit  had 
so  alarmed  the  Queen. 

Sarah  Wilson  was  arrested,  tried  as  a  felon, 
and  sentenced  to  death  ;  but  by  the  exertions 
and  influence  of  her  former  mistress  the 
sentence  was  commuted  to  transportation  to 
the  American  colonies  for  a  seven  years' 
term  of  servitude.  This  leniency  caused 
considerable  stir  in  London  and  some  dis- 
satisfaction. 

In  1771,  after  passage  in  a  convict  ship, 
Sarah  Wilson  was  sold  to  a  Mr.  William 
Duvall,  of  Bush  Creek,  Frederick  County, 
Maryland,  for  seven  years'  servitude.  After 
a  short  time,  in  which  she  apparently  de- 
veloped her  plans  of  fraud,  she  escaped  from 
her  master,  and  went  to  Virginia  and  the 
Carolinas,  where  she  assumed  the  title  of 
Princess  Susannah  Caroline  Matilda,  and  as- 
serted she  was  the  sister  of  the  Queen  of 
England.  She  still  owned  the  miniature  of 
the  Queen,  and  some  rich  jewels,  which  gave 
apparent  proof  of  her  assertion,  and  it  is 
said  some  rich  clothing.  It  is  indeed  mys- 
terious 


TWO   COLONIAL  ADVENTURESSES.     169 

terious  that  a  transported  convict  could 
retain  in  her  possession,  through  all  her 
reverses,  the  very  jewels  for  whose  theft  she 
was  punished ;  yet  the  story  can  scarcely  be 
doubted. 

She  travelled  through  the  South  from 
plantation  to  plantation,  with  plentiful  prom- 
ises of  future  English  offices  and  court 
favors  to  all  who  assisted  her  progress ;  and 
liberal  sums  of  money  were  placed  at  her 
disposal,  to  be  repaid  by  Queen  Charlotte ; 
and  she  seems  to  have  been  universally  wel- 
comed and  feasted. 

But  the  fame  of  the  royal  visitor  spread 
afar  and  found  its  way  to  Bush  Creek,  to  the 
ears  of  Mr.  Duvall,  and  he  promptly  sus- 
pected that  he  had  found  trace  of  his  ingen- 
ious runaway  servant.  As  was  the  custom 
of  the  day,  he  advertised  for  her  and  a  reward 
for  her  capture.  The  notice  reads  thus  :  — 

Bush  Creek,  Frederick  County,  Maryland,  Oc- 
tober u,  1771.  Ran  away  from  the  subscriber 
a  convict  servant  named  SARAH  WILSON,  but  has 
changed  her  name  to  Lady  Susannah  Caroline 
Matilda,  which  made  the  public  believe  that  she 
was  her  Majesty's  sister.  She  has  a  blemish  in 
her  right  eye,  black  roll'd  hair,  stoops  in  the 

shoulders, 


I/O    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

shoulders,  and  makes  a  common  practice  of  writ- 
ing and  marking  her  clothes  with  a  crown  and 
a  B.  Whoever  secures  the  said  servant  woman 
or  will  take  her  home,  shall  receive  five  pistoles, 
besides  all  cost  of  charges.  William  Duvall. 

I  entitle  Michael  Dalton  to  search  the  city  of 
Philadelphia,  and  from  there  to  Charleston,  for 
the  said  woman. 

Beauty  readily  inspires  confidence,  and  dig- 
nity commands  it.  But  a  woman  with  such 
scant  personal  charms,  with  a  blemish  in  her 
eye  and  stooping  shoulders,  must  have  been 
most  persuasive  in  conversation  to  have  sur- 
mounted such  obstacles.  It  is  said  that  she 
was  most  gracious,  yet  commanding. 

To  elude  Michael  Dalton's  authorized 
search  from  Philadelphia  to  Charleston, 
Sarah  Wilson  fled  from  her  scenes  of  suc- 
cess, but  also  of  too  familiar  and  extensive 
acquaintance,  to  New  York.  But  New  York 
proved  still  too  near  to  Maryland,  so  she  took 
passage  for  Newport.  Here  her  fame  pre- 
ceded her,  for  in  the  Newport  Mercury  of 
November  29,  1773,  is  this  notice  :  — 

Last  Tuesday  arrived  here  from  New  York 
the  lady  who  has  passed  through  several  of  the 
southern  colonies  under  the  name  and  character 

of 


TWO   COLONIAL  ADVENTURESSES.     If  I 

of  CAROLINE  MATILDA,  Marchioness  de  Wald- 
grave,  etc.,  etc. 

I  do  not  know  the  steps  that  led  to  her 
capture  and  removal,  but  at  the  end  of  the 
year  the  Marchioness  was  back  on  William 
Duvall's  plantation,  and  bound  to  serve  a 
redoubled  term  of  years.  It  seems  to  be 
probable  that  she  also  suffered  more  ignoble 
punishment,  for  Judge  Martin  says  in  his 
History  of  Louisiana  :  — 

A  female  driven  for  her  misconduct  from  the 
service  of  a  maid  of  honor  of  Princess  Matilda, 
sister  of  George  III.,  was  convicted  at  the  Old 
Bailey  and  transported  to  Maryland.  She  ef- 
fected her  escape  before  the  expiration  of  her 
time,  and  travelled  through  Virginia  and  both 
the  Carolinas  personating  the  Princess,  and  levy- 
ing contributions  on  the  credulity  of  the  planters 
and  merchants  and  even  some  of  the  kings  offi- 
cers. She  was  at  last  arrested  in  Charleston, 
prosecuted  and  whipped. 

I  often  wonder  what  became  of  the  Brum- 
magem princess,  with  her  jewels  and  her 
personal  blemishes ;  and  I  often  fancy  that 
I  find  traces  of  her  career,  still  masquerading, 
still  imposing  on  simple  folk.  For  instance, 

Rev. 


172     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES, 

Rev.  Manasseh  Cutler  wrote,  at  his  home  in 
Ipswich  Hamlet,  Mass.,  on  January  25,  1775  : 
A  lady  came  to  our  house  who  had  made  a 
great  noise  in  the  country,  and  has  been  made 
the  occasion  of  various  conjectures.  She  calls 
herself  Caroline  Augusta  Harriet,  Duchess  of 
Brownstonburges.  Says  she  has  resided  in  the 
Court  of  England  for  several  years,  that  she 
eloped  from  the  palace  of  St.  James.  She  ap- 
pears to  be  a  person  of  an  extraordinary  educa- 
tion, and  well  acquainted  with  things  at  Court, 
but  she  is  generally  supposed  to  be  an  impostor. 

Three  days  later  he  writes  that  he  "con- 
veyed the  extraordinary  visitor  to  town  in  a 
chaise."     With  this  glimpse  of   Sarah  —  if 
Sarah  she  were  —  visiting   in  a  little  New 
England  town  in  a  sober  Puritan  family,  and 
riding  off  to   Boston   in  a  chaise  with  the 
pious  Puritan  preacher,  she  vanishes  from 
our  ken,  to  be  obscured   in   the  smoke  of 
battle  and  the  din  of  war,  and  forced 
to  learn  that  to  American  patriots 
it  was  no  endearing  trait  to 
pose  as  an  English 
princess. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   UNIVERSAL   FRIEND. 

SIR  THOMAS  BROWNE  says  that  "  all 
heresies,  how  gross  soever,  have  found 
a  welcome  with  the  people."  Certainly  they 
have  with  the  people,  and  specially  they 
have  with  the  Rhode  Island  people.  The 
eighty-two  pestilent  heresies  so  sadly  de- 
plored by  the  Puritan  divines  found  a  home 
in  Rhode  Island  and  the  Providence  Planta- 
tions. It  was  not  strange,  therefore,  that 
from  the  heart  of  Narragansett  should  spring 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  and  success- 
ful religious  woman-fanatics  the  world  has 
ever  known.  Jemima  Wilkinson  was  born 
in  the  town  of  Cumberland,  R.  I.,  in  1758. 
Though  her  father  was  a  poor  farmer,  she 
came  of  no  mean  stock.  She  was  a  descend- 
ant of  English  kings  —  of  King  Edward  I. 
—  and  later  of  Lieutenant  Wilkinson,  of 
Cromwell's  army,  and  she  was  a  second  cou- 
sin 


1/4     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

sin  of  Governor  Stephen  Hopkins  and  Com- 
modore Hopkins. 

When  she  was  eight  years  old  her  mother 
died,  leaving  her  to  the  care  of  older  sisters, 
whom  she  soon  completely  dominated.  She 
was  handsome,  fond  of  ease  and  dress,  vain, 
and  eager  for  attention.  She  was  romantic 
and  impressionable,  and  when  a  new  sect  of 
religious  zealots,  called  Separatists,  appeared 
in  her  neighborhood  —  a  sect  who  rejected 
church  organization  and  insisted  upon  direct 
guidance  from  heaven  —  she  became  one  of 
the  most  regular  attendants  at  their  meet- 
ings. 

She  soon  betook  herself  to  solitude  and 
study  of  the  Bible,  and  seemed  in  deep  re- 
flection, and  at  last  kept  wholly  to  her  room, 
and  then  went  to  bed.  She  was  at  that  time 
but  eighteen  years  old,  and  it  scarcely  seems 
possible  that  she  deliberately  planned  out  her 
system  of  life-long  deception  which  proved 
so  successful ;  but  soon  she  began  to  see 
visions,  which  she  described  to  her  sisters 
and  visitors,  and  interpreted  to  them. 

Finally  she  fell  in  a  deep  trance,  which 
lasted  thirty-six  hours,  during  which  she 
scarcely  breathed.  About  the  middle  of 

the 


THE    UNIVERSAL  FRIEND.  175 

the  second  day,  when  surrounded  by  anxious 
watchers  (who  proved  valuable  witnesses  in 
her  later  career),  she  rose  up  majestically, 
called  for  clothing,  dressed  herself,  and 
walked  about  fully  restored  and  calm,  though 
pale.  But  she  announced  that  Jemima  Wil- 
kinson had  died,  and  that  her  body  was  now 
inhabited  by  a  spirit  whose  mission  was  to 
deliver  the  oracles  of  God  to  mankind,  and 
who  was  to  be  known  henceforth  by  the 
name  of  the  Universal  Friend.  It  ought  to 
be  noted  here  that  this  girl  of  eighteen  not 
only  maintained  these  absurd  claims  of  res- 
urrection of  the  body  and  reincarnation,  at 
that  time,  in  the  face  of  the  expostulation 
and  arguments  of  her  relatives  and  friends, 
but  also  with  unshaken  firmness,  and  before 
all  hearers,  till  the  day  of  her  death  at  the 
age  of  sixty-one. 

On  the  first  Sunday  sfter  her  trance,  the 
Universal  Friend  preached  in  the  open  air 
near  her  home  to  a  large  and  excited  gather- 
ing of  people ;  and  she  electrified  her  audi- 
ence by  her  eloquence,  her  brilliant  imagi- 
nation, her  extraordinary  familiarity  with 
the  Scriptures,  and  her  facility  and  force  of 
application  and  quotation  from  them.  Her 

success 


176     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

success  in  obtaining  converts  was  most 
marked  from  the  first,  as  was  her  success 
in  obtaining  temporal  comforts  and  benefits 
from  these  converts.  In  this  she  resembled 
the  English  religious  adventuress,  Johanna 
South  cote.  For  six  years  she  lived  at  the 
house  of  Judge  William  Potter,  in  South 
Kingstown,  R.  I.  This  handsome  house 
was  known  as  the  Abbey.  He  enlarged  it 
by  building  a  splendid  suite  of  rooms  for  his 
beloved  spiritual  leader,  on  whom  he  lavished 
his  large  fortune. 

Her  success  as  a  miracle-worker  was  not 
so  great.  She  announced  that  on  a  certain 
date  she  would  walk  upon  the  water,  but 
when,  in  the  face  of  a  large  multitude,  she 
reached  the  water's  edge,  she  denounced  the 
lack  of  faith  of  her  followers,  and  refused  to 
gratify  their  curiosity  by  trying  the  experi- 
ment. Nor  did  she  succeed  in  her  attempt 
to  raise  from  the  dead  one  Mistress  Susanna 
Potter,  the  daughter  of  Judge  Potter,  who 
died  during  Jemima's  residence  at  the  Abbey. 
She  managed,  however,  to  satisfy  fully  her 
followers  by  foretelling  events,  interpreting 
dreams,  and  penetrating  secrets,  which  she 

worded 


THE   UNIVERSAL  FRIEND.  1 77 

worded  by  ingeniously  mystic  and  easily  ap- 
plicable terms. 

Her  meetings  and  her  converts  were  not 
confined  to  Rhode  Island.  In  southern 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  many  joined 
her  band.  In  New  Milford,  Conn.,  her  con- 
verts erected  a  meeting-house.  In  1782  she 
started  out  upon  a  new  mission.  With  a 
small  band  of  her  disciples  she  went  to 
Philadelphia,  where  she  was  cordially  re- 
ceived and  entertained  by  the  Quakers.  In 
Worcester,  Pa.,  her  reception  was  enthu- 
siastic. Scarce  a  diary  of  those  times  but 
contains  some  allusion  to  her  or  her  career. 
In  the  journal  of  Jacob  Hiltzeheimer,  of 
Philadelphia,  I  read  :  — 

Aug.  15,  1783.  Returning  from  church,  I  ob- 
served people  crowded  about  the  Free  Quakers 
meeting-house,  and  was  told  they  were  waiting 
to  see  the  wonderful  Jemima  Wilkinson  who  had 
preached.  I  remained  till  she  came  out  to  get 
in  her  chair.  She  had  on  a  white  hat  but  no  cap, 
and  a  white  linen  garment  that  covered  her  to 
her  feet. 

Aug.  20,  1783.  Went  to  the  new  Quaker 
meeting-house  on  Arch  Street  to  hear  Jemima 

Wilkinson 


1/8     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND    GOOD  WIVES. 

Wilkinson  preach.     She  looks  more  like  a  man 
than  a  woman. 

May  22,  1788.  I  rode  out  to  Cunninghams 
Centre  House  to  hear  the  famous  Jemima  Wil- 
kinson preach,  and  in  the  room  where  formerly  a 
billiard  table  stood  I  saw  and  heard  her.  She 
spoke  much  in  the  New  England  dialect.  She 
appeared  to  be  about  twenty-five  years  of  age, 
her  hair  was  dressed  like  that  of  a  man,  and  she 
wore  a  black  gown  after  the  fashion  of  church 
ministers. 

The  manuscript  diary  of  the  Reverend 
John  Pitman,  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  says : 
"Saw  that  poor  deluded  creature  Jemima 
Wilkerson  and  a  number  of  her  dull  followers 
standing  staring  at  the  cross-roads." 

In  the  days  of  reaction  after  the  excite- 
ment of  the  Revolution,  many  aspirations 
for  a  better  social  state  prompted  settlements 
in  outlying  portions  of  the  Central  States. 
Communities  were  founded,  Utopias  were 
planned,  and  soon  the  united  body  of  people 
known  as  the  Friend's  followers  decided  to 
seek  in  the  depths  of  the  wilderness  a  new 
home.  It  was  a  bold  undertaking,  but  the 
band  had  a  bold  commander,  and  above  all, 
they  were  absolute  in  their  confidence  in  her. 

In 


THE   UNIVERSAL  FRIEND.  179 

In  no  way  was  that  confidence  shown  so  re- 
markably as  in  the  fact  that  the  settlement 
was  made  for  her  but  without  her.  The 
three  delegates  sent  to  find  a  place  suitable 
for  their  purpose  reported  in  favor  of  the 
region  at  the  foot  of  Seneca  Lake  in  the 
State  of  New  York.  In  1788  the  settlement 
was  made  on  the  west  shore  of  the  lake  by 
twenty-five  persons,  on  the  primitive  high- 
way of  the  region,  about  a  mile  south  of 
Dresden,  and  it  was  named  Jerusalem. 

For  over  two  years  a  band  of  determined 
believers  labored  in  this  wilderness  to  pre- 
pare a  home  for  their  leader,  who  was  com- 
fortably carrying  on  her  triumphant  and 
flattering  progress  in  the  large  cities.  Sur- 
rounded by  Indians,  and  menaced  by  wild 
beasts,  they  cleared  the  forests,  and  planted 
wheat,  and  lived  on  scant  food.  During  the 
first  year  one  family  for  six  weeks  had  only 
boiled  nettles  and  bohea  tea  for  nourishment. 
When  the  cornfields  yielded  the  second  sum- 
mer, a  small  grist-mill  was  built  with  incredi- 
ble labor.  When  the  well-fed  and  not  at  all 
over-worked  Friend  arrived,  she  found  an 
orderly,  industrious  community  of  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty  persons,  who  had  built  for 

her 


ISO     COLONIAL   DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

her  a  home  and  a  meeting-house,  and  she 
at  once  settled  down  in  comparative  comfort 
in  the  midst  of  her  flock. 

The  house  which  was  occupied  by  the 
Friend  was  a  log-house  of  humble  preten- 
sions ;  to  this  two  or  three  houses  were 
added,  then  upper  stories  were  placed  over 
all,  and  framed  in.  It  stood  in  a  fine  garden, 
and  by  its  side  was  a  long  building  used  as  a 
workshop  for  the  women  of  the  settlement, 
where  spinning,  weaving,  and  sewing  were 
constantly  carried  on.  Near  by  stood  the 
sugar  grove,  a  most  lucrative  possession  of 
the  society.  From  this  home  the  Friend 
and  her  steadfast  followers  would  ride  in 
imposing  cavalcade,  two  by  two,  to  meeting 
at  the  early  settlement.  With  their  hand- 
some, broad-brimmed  hats,  substantial  clothes, 
and  excellent  horses,  they  made  a  most  not- 
able and  impressive  appearance.  Her  sec- 
ond house  was  more  pretentious  and  compar- 
atively luxurious  ;  in  it  she  lived  till  the  time 
of  her  death. 

Jemima  Wilkinson's  followers  were  of  no 
poor  or  ordinary  stock.  Many  brought  to 
her  community  considerable  wealth.  Into 
the  wilderness  went  with  her  from  Kings- 
town 


THE    UNIVERSAL  FRIEND.  1 8 1 

town,  R.  I.,  Judge  William  Potter  and  his 
daughters;  a  family  of  wealthy  Hazards; 
Captain  James  Parker  (brother  of  Sir  Peter 
Parker) ;  four  Reynolds  sisters  from  a  family 
of  dignity ;  Elizabeth  Luther  and  seven  chil- 
dren ;  members  of  the  Card,  Hunt,  Sherman, 
and  Briggs  families.  From  New  Milford, 
Conn.,  emigrated  a  number  of  Stones  and 
Botsfords,  and  from  New  Bedford  many  mem- 
bers of  the  influential  Hathaway  and  Law- 
rence families.  From  Stonington  and  New 
London  went  a  large  number  of  Barneses 
and  Browns  and  Davises ;  from  Philadelphia 
the  entire  family  of  Malins  and  the  Sup- 
plees  ;  from  Worcester,  Pa.,  came  a  most  im- 
portant recruit,  Daniel  Wagener,  with  his 
sister,  and  Jonathan  Davis,  and  other  well- 
to-do  and  influential  persons. 

The  most  important  converts  to  belief  in 
her  doctrines,  and  pioneers  for  her,  were 
doubtless  Judge  Potter  and  Captain  Parker, 
both  men  of  large  wealth  and  unstinted  lib- 
erality to  their  leader.  The  former  had  been 
treasurer  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island ;  the 
latter  had  been  also  a  magistrate  for  twenty 
years  in  the  same  State.  They  were  the 
largest  contributors  to  the  fund  for  the  pur- 
chase 


1 82    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

chase  of  the  tract  of  land  in  New  York. 
These  men  sacrificed  home  and  friends  to 
come  to  the  New  Jerusalem  with  their  adored 
priestess  ;  but  they  quickly  escaped  from  her 
sway,  and  became  in  later  years  her  most 
powerful  enemies.  They  even  issued  a  com- 
plaint against  her  for  blasphemy.  The  offi- 
cer who  tried  to  serve  the  warrant  upon  her 
was  unable  to  seize  the  Friend,  who  was  an 
accomplished  rider  and  well  mounted,  and, 
when  he  went  to  her  house,  was  roughly 
treated  and  driven  away.  John  Lawrence, 
whose  wife  was  Anna  Hathaway,  was  a  near 
relative  of  Commodore  Lawrence ;  he  was  a 
shipbuilder  at  New  Bedford,  and,  though  he 
followed  Jemima  Wilkinson  to  Seneca  Lake, 
never  joined  her  society.  Many  of  her  be- 
lievers never  lived  in  her  settlement,  but  vis- 
ited her  there ;  and  many  bequeathed  to  her 
liberally  by  will,  and  made  valuable  gifts  to 
her  during  their  life. 

In  the  main,  the  influence  of  this  remark- 
able woman  continued  unabated  with  a  large 
number  of  her  followers  throughout  her  life, 
and  even  after  her  death.  This  power  sur- 
vived against  the  adverse  conditions  of  fre- 
quent litigations,  personal  asperities,  con- 
stant 


THE   UNIVERSAL  FRIEND.  183 

stant  injurious  reports,  and  the  dislike  of 
many  to  the  strictness  of  her  faith  and  aus- 
terity of  life  required  by  her  from  her  follow- 
ers. This  allegiance  could  hardly  have  been 
founded  solely  on  religious  credulity,  but 
must  have  depended  largely  in  her  attractive 
personal  traits,  her  humanity,  and  doubtless 
also  to  her  attractive  expositions  of  her  lively 
imagination.  To  the  last  she  persisted  in 
calling  herself  by  the  sole  name  of  the  Uni- 
versal Friend.  Even  her  will  was  signed 
thus :  "  I,  the  person  once  called  Jemima 
Wilkinson,  but  in  and  ever  since  the  year 
1777  known  as  and  called  the  Public  Univer- 
sal Friend,  hereunto  set  my  name  and  seal ; 
Public  Universal  Friend."  But  she  cannily 
appended  a  sub-signature  over  a  cross-mark 
of  the  name  of  her  youth. 

A  remarkable  feature  of  the  Universal 
Friend's  Society,  perhaps  the  most  remark- 
able effect  of  her  teachings,  was  the  large 
number  of  excellent  women  who,  as  per- 
sistent celibates,  adhered  to  her  teachings 
throughout  their  lives.  Some  lived  in  her 
house,  and  all  were  consistent  representa- 
tives of  her  doctrines,  and  many  lived  to 
great  old  age.  Nor  can  I  doubt  from  the 

accounts 


1 84     COLONIAL   DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

accounts  of  their  lives  that  they  were  ex- 
ceedingly happy  in  their  celibacy  and  in 
their  unwavering  belief  in  Jemima  Wilkin- 
son. Carlyle  says,  "  Man's  gullibility  is  not 
his  worst  blessing."  I  may  paraphrase  his 
assertion  thus — woman's  gullibility  is  one 
of  her  most  comforting  traits.  Her  persist- 
ent belief,  her  unswerving  devotion,  often  to 
wholly  unworthy  objects,  brings  its  own  re- 
ward in  a  lasting,  though  unreasoning  satis- 
faction. 

Jemima's  male  adherents  were  nearly  all 
married.  It  was  her  intention  that  her  prop- 
erty, which  was  considerable,  should  be  held 
for  the  benefit  of  her  followers  who  survived 
her,  but  it  was  gradually  transferred  and 
wasted  till  the  last  aged  members  of  the 
band  were  forced  to  depend  upon  the  charity 
of  neighbors  and  the  public. 

One  of  the  best  accounts  of  the  personal- 
ity of  Jemima  Wilkinson  was  given  by  the 
Duke  de  la  Rochefoucault  Liancourt,  who 
visited  her  in  1 796.  He  says  :  — 

We  saw  Jemima  and  attended  her  meeting, 
which  is  held  in  her  own  house.  Jemima  stood 
at  the  door  of  her  bed  chamber  on  a  carpet,  with 
an  armchair  behind  her.  She  had  on  a  white 

morning 


THE   UNIVERSAL  FRIEND.  185 

morning  gown  and  a  waistcoat  such  as  men  wear 
and  a  petticoat  of  the  same  color.  Her  black 
hair  was  cut  short,  carefully  combed  and  divided 
behind  into  three  ringlets ;  she  wore  a  stock  and 
a  white  silk  cravat,  which  was  tied  about  her  neck 
with  affected  negligence.  In  point  of  delivery 
she  preached  with  more  ease  than  any  other 
Quaker  I  have  ever  heard,  but  the  subject  matter 
of  her  discourse  was  an  eternal  repetition  of  the 
same  subjects  —  death,  sin  and  repentance.  She 
is  said  to  be  about  forty  years  of  age  but  did 
not  appear  more  than  thirty.  She  is  of  middle 
stature,  well  made,  of  florid  countenance,  and 
has  fine  teeth  and  beautiful  eyes.  Her  action  is 
studied.  She  aims  at  simplicity  but  is  pedantic 
in  her  manner.  Her  hypocrisy  may  be  traced  in 
all  her  discourse,  actions  and  conduct  and  even 
in  the  very  manner  which  she  manages  her  coun- 
tenance. 

He  speaks  with  much  asperity  of  her  pre- 
tence of  condemning  earthly  enjoyment  while 
her  whole  manner  of  living  showed  much  per- 
sonal luxury  and  gratification. 

This  description  of  her  was  given  by  one 
who  saw  her :  — 

She  was  higher  than  a  middle  stature,  of  fine 
form,  fair  complexion  with  florid  cheeks,  dark 
and  brilliant  eyes,  and  beautiful  white  teeth. 

Her 


1 86     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND    GOODWIVES. 

Her  hair  dark  auburn  or  black,  combed  from  the 
seam  of  the  head  and  fell  on  her  shoulders  in 
three  full  ringlets.  In  her  public  addresses  she 
would  rise  up  and  stand  perfectly  still  for  a  min- 
ute or  more,  than  proceed  with  a  slow  and  dis- 
tinct enunciation.  She  spoke  with  great  ease 
and  increased  fluency ;  her  voice  clear  and  har- 
monious, and  manner  persuasive  and  emphatic. 
Her  dress  rich  but  plain  and  in  a  style  entirely 
her  own  ;  a  broad  brimmed  beaver  hat  with  a 
low  crown,  and  the  sides  when  she  rode  turned 
down  and  tied  under  her  chin ;  a  full  light  drab 
cloak  or  mantle  and  a  unique  underdress ;  and  a 
cravat  round  the  neck  with  square  ends  that  fell 
down  to  the  waist  forward. 

The  square  cravat  or  band  gave  her  a  semi- 
clerical  look.  The  rich  glossy  smoothness 
and  simplicity  of  dressing  her  hair  is  com- 
mented on  by  nearly  all  who  left  accounts  of 
her  personal  appearance  ;  and  was  doubtless 
more  marked  in  her  day  because  the  femi- 
nine headdress  of  that  time  was  elaborate 
to  a  degree  that  was  even  fantastic,  and  was 
at  the  opposite  extreme  from  simple  curls. 

Many  scurrilous  and  absurd  stories  are 
told  of  her,  especially  in  a  biography  of  her 
which  was  written  and  printed  soon  after 

her 


THE   UNIVERSAL  FRIEND.  187 

her  death.  Many  of  the  anecdotes  in  this 
biography  are  too  petty  and  too  improbable 
to  be  given  any  credence.  I  am  convinced 
that  she  was  a  woman  of  most  sober  and 
discreet  life;  importunate  of  respect  and 
greedy  of  absolute  power;  personally  luxu- 
rious in  her  tastes,  and  of  vast  ambition,  but 
always  of  dignified  carriage.  And  through 
her  dignity,  sobriety,  and  reserve  she  had  a 
lasting  hold  upon  her  followers.  Perhaps 
she  told  her  alleged  belief,  her  tale  of  her 
mission,  until  she  half  believed  it  herself. 
One  story  of  her  is  worthy  repetition,  and  I 
think  of  credence. 

It  tells  of  her  repulse  when  she  endeav- 
ored to  secure  among  her  followers  the  In- 
dians of  Canandaigua.  She  spoke  to  them  at 
Canandaigua  and  again  at  Seneca  Lake,  evi- 
dently realizing  fully  the  advantage  that 
might  be  gained  from  them  through  land- 
grants  and  personal  support.  Many  of  the 
Oneida  Indians  had  been  converted  by  mis- 
sionaries to  Christianity,  and  as  they  held  a 
Sunday  service  she  entered  and  made  a 
thrilling  and  impressive  address,  assuring 
them  she  was  their  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 
They  listened  to  her  with  marked  attention, 

and 


1 88     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

and  one  of  their  number  arose  and  delivered 
a  short  and  animated  speech  to  his  com- 
panions in  the  Oneida  tongue.     When  he 
ceased  speaking,  Jemima  turned  to  the  inter- 
preter and    asked    an    explanation   of    the 
speaker's  words,  which  was  given  her.     The 
Indian  speaker  sat  by  her  side  with  a  sar- 
donic expression  on  his  grim  face,  and  when 
the  interpretation  was  finished,  said  signifi- 
cantly and  coldly,  "You  no  Jesus  Christ  — 
he  know  all  poor  Indian  say  as  well  as  what 
white  man  say,"  and  turned  contemptuously 
from  her.     It  is  said  that  the  cunning  In- 
dian detective  was  the  great  chief  Red 
Jacket,  and  from  what  we  know 
of  his  shrewd  and  diplo- 
matic character  it  can 
readily  be  be- 
lieved. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY    MANNERS. 

"\  TOTHING  can  more  plainly  show  the 
*  ^1  regard  in  which  women  were  held  in 
Virginia  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  than  the  entries  in  the  accounts  of 
Colonel  William  Byrd  of  his  visits  to  Vir- 
ginia homes.  He  was  an  accomplished  and 
cultivated  gentleman,  who  wrote  with  much 
intelligence  and  power  when  relating  his 
interviews  with  men,  or  discussing  what 
might  be  termed  masculine  subjects,  but 
who  revealed  his  opinion  of  the  mental  ca- 
pacity of  the  fair  sex  by  such  side  glimpses 
as  these :  "  We  supped  about  nine  and  then 
prattled  with  the  ladies."  "Our  conversa- 
tion with  the  ladies  was  like  whip-syllabub, 
very  pretty  but  nothing  in  it."  He  also 
makes  rather  coarse  jokes  about  Miss  Thekky 
and  her  maiden  state,  which  was  of  course 
most  deplorable  in  his  and  every  one  else's 
eyes ;  and  he  alludes  disparagingly  to  Mrs. 

Chiswell 


190    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

Chiswell  as  "one  of  those  absolute  rarities, 
a  very  good  old  woman."  The  Virginia  wo- 
men are  said  by  other  authors  of  that  day  to 
have  been  "  bounteous  in  size  and  manner." 
M.  Droz  wrote  of  them  :  — 

Most  of  the  women  are  quite  pretty  and  in- 
sinuating in  their  manner  if  they  find  you  so. 
When  you  ask  them  if  they  would  like  to  have 
husbands  they  reply  with  a  good  grace  that  it  is 
just  what  they  desire. 

For  many  years  an  epidemic  of  sentimen- 
tality and  mawkishness  seemed  to  everywhere 
prevail  in  America,  and  indeed  everywhere 
among  English-speaking  peoples,  and  seemed 
also  to  be  universally  admired.  The  women 
in  America  were,  as  Doctor  Shippen  wrote, 
"  languishingly  sweet."  This  insipidity  per- 
vaded the  letters  of  the  times,  it  showed  in 
all  the  diaries  and  journals  that  record  con- 
versations. Long  and  vapid  discourses  on 
love  and  matrimony  and  "  Platonicks  "  were 
held  even  between  comparative  strangers. 
Even  so  sprightly  and  intelligent  a  journal- 
ist as  Sally  Wister  records  her  exceedingly 
flippant  conversation  with  young  officers  of 
new  acquaintance,  who,  within  a  few  hours  of 

introduction, 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTUR  Y  MANNERS.     191 

introduction,  suggested  matrimony  and  love 
and  kisses,  and  punctuated  their  remarks 
with  profanity,  which  they  "declared  was 
their  favorite  vice." 

William  Black,  a  most  observant  traveller, 
wrote  of  Philadelphia  girls  in  1744  : — 

One  of  the  ladies  began  a  discourse  on  love 
wherein  she  pulPd  the  other  Sex  to  pieces.  Set- 
ting forth  the  Constancy  of  their  Sex  and  the 
Unstability  of  ours.  Every  one  of  the  young 
ladies  put  in  an  Oar  and  helped  her  Out ;  at  last 
being  quite  tired  of  the  Subject  and  at  a  Loss 
what  more  to  say  the  Lady  that  begun  it  turned 
from  it  artfull  enough  to  Criticizing  on  Plays  and 
their  Authors,  Addison,  Otway,  Prior,  Congrevc, 
Dryden,  Pope,  Shakespere  &c  were  named  often 
in  Question ;  the  words  Genius  and  no  Genius, 
Invention,  Poetry,  Fine  things,  bad  Language, 
no  Style,  Charming  writing,  Imagary  and  Diction, 
with  many  more  Expressions  which  swim  on  the 
surface  of  Criticism  seemed  to  have  been  caught 
by  the  Female  Fishers  for  the  Reputation  of  Wit 

Though  William  Black  was  willing  to  talk 
of  "Love  and  Platonicks,"  and  with  warm 
approval,  he  was  bitter  in  his  rebuke  of  this 
"  Fine  Lady  Mrs  Talkative "  who  dared  to 
speak  of  books  and  authors. 

It 


192     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

It  is  well  to  note  the  books  read  by  these 
young  ladies  in  high  life,  and  their  critical 
opinion  of  them.  A  much-liked  book  was 
named  The  Generous  Inconstant.  It  has 
vanished  from  our  modern  view.  I  should 
really  like  to  see  the  book  that  rejoiced  in 
such  a  title.  We  can  also  learn  of  the  books 
read  by  Lucinda  the  "  Young  lady  of  Vir- 
ginia "  and  her  friend  Polly  Brent.  Lucin- 
da's  journal  was  written  during  a  visit  to  the 
Lees,  Washingtons,  Grymes,  Spotswoods, 
and  other  first  families  of  Virginia,  and  has 
been  preserved  till  our  own  day.  She  thus 
records :  — 

I  have  spent  the  morning  in  reading  Lady 
Julia  Mandeville,  and  was  much  affected.  In- 
deed I  think  I  never  cried  more  in  my  life  read- 
ing a  Novel ;  the  Stile  is  beautiful,  but  the  tale 
is  horrid.  Some  one  just  comes  to  tell  us  Mr 
Masenbird  and  Mr  Spotswood  is  come.  We 
must  go  down,  but  I  am  affraid  both  Sister's  and 
my  eyes  will  betray  us. 

Mrs.  A.  Washington  has  lent  me  a  new  Novel 
called  Victoria.  I  cant  say  I  admire  the  Tale, 
though  I  think  it  prettyly  Told.  There  is  a 
Verse  in  it  I  wish  you  much  to  read.  I  believe 
if  I  ant  too  Lazy  I  will  copy  it  off  for  you ;  the 

verse 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  MANNERS.     193 

verse  is  not  very  beautifull  but  the  sense  is  I 
assure  you. 

I  have  been  very  agreeably  entertained  this 
evening  reading  a  Novel  called  Malvern  Dale. 
It  is  something  like  Evelina,  though  not  so  pretty. 
I  have  a  piece  of  advice  to  give  which  I  have  be- 
fore urged,  that  is  to  read  something  improving. 
Books  of  instruction  will  be  a  thousand  times 
more  pleasing  (after  a  little  while)  than  all  the 
novels  in  the  World.  I  own  myself  I  am  too 
fond  of  Novel-reading ;  but  by  accustoming  my- 
self to  reading  other  Books  I  have  become  less 
so.  I  have  entertained  myself  all  day  reading 
Telemachus.  It  is  really  delightful  and  very  im- 
proving. 

I  have  for  the  first  time  in  my  life  just  read    \/ 
Pope's  Eloiza.     I  had  heard  my  Polly  extol  it 
frequently,  and  curiosity  led  me  to  read  it.     I  will 
give  you  my  opinion  of  it ;  the  Poetry  I  think  ;•. 
butifull,  but  do  not  like  some  of  the  sentiments. 
Some  of  Eloizas  is  too  Amorous  for  a  Female  I 
think. 

Sally  Wister,  a  girl  of  fifteen,  had  brought 
to  her  what  she  called  "  a  charming  collec- 
tion of  books,"  —  Caroline  Melmoth,  some 
Ladys  Magazines,  Juliet  Grenville  and  "  Joe 
Andrews  "  —  this,  Fielding's  Joseph  An- 
drews, I  suppose. 

The 


194    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

The  sensible  and  intelligent  Eliza  Lucas 
wrote  in  1742,  when  she  was  about  twenty- 
one  years  old,  with  much  critical  discrimina- 
tion on  what  she  read :  — 

I  send  by  the  bearer  the  last  volume  of  Pamela. 
She  is  a  good  girl  and  as  such  I  love  her  dearly, 
but  I  must  think  her  very  defective,  and  even 
blush  for  her  while  she  allows  herself  that  dis- 
gusting liberty  of  praising  herself,  or  what  is  very 
like  it,  repeating  all  the  fine  speeches  made  to  her 
by  others,  —  when  a  person  distinguished  for  mod- 
esty in  every  other  respect  should  have  chosen 
rather  to  conceal  them,  or  at  least  let  them  come 
from  some  other  hand ;  especially  as  she  might 
have  considered  those  high  compliments  might 
have  proceeded  from  the  partiality  of  her  friends, 
or  with  a  view  to  encourage  her  and  make  her 
aspire  after  those  qualifications  which  are  ascribed 
to  her,  which  I  know  experimentally  to  be  often 
the  case.  But  then  you  answer,  she  was  a  young 
country  girl,  had  seen  nothing  of  life,  and  it  was 
natural  for  her  to  be  pleased  with  praise,  and  she 
had  not  art  enough  to  conceal  it.  True,  before 
she  was  Mrs.  B.  it  was  excusable  when  only  wrote 
to  her  father  and  mother,  but  after  she  had  the 
advantage  of  Mr  B's  conversation,  and  others  of 
sense  and  distinction,  I  must  be  of  another  opin- 
ion. But  here  arises  a  difficulty  —  we  are  to  be 

made 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  MANNERS.     195 

made  acquainted  by  the  author  of  all  particulars ; 
how  then  is  it  to  be  done  ?  I  think  by  Miss 
Durnford  or  some  other  lady  very  intimate  with 
Mrs  B.  How  you  smile  at  my  presumption  for 
instructing  one  so  far  above  my  own  level  as  the 
author  of  Pamela  (whom  I  esteem  much  for  the 
regard  he  pays  to  virtue  and  religion)  but  con- 
tract your  smile  into  a  mortified  look  for  I  acquit 
the  author.  He  designed  to  paint  no  more  than 
a  woman,  and  he  certainly  designed  it  as  a  reflec- 
tion upon  the  vanity  of  our  sex  that  a  character 
so  complete  in  every  other  instance  should  be  so 
defective  in  this.  Defective  indeed  when  she 
sometimes  mentions  that  poor  creature  Mr  H's 
applauses  it  puts  me  in  mind  of  the  observation 
in  Don  Quixote,  how  grateful  is  praise  even  from 
a  madman. 

A  most  popular  form  of  literary  inter- 
course and  amusement  was  everywhere 
found  in  stilted  sentimental  correspondence, 
conducted  often  under  assumed  and  high- 
sounding  names,  usually  classical.  For  in- 
stance, this  young  lady  of  Virginia  writes  to 
her  friend,  plain  Polly,  when  separated  for  a 
short  time :  — 

Oh  my  Marcia  how  hard  is  our  fate !  that  we 
should  be  deprived  of  your  dear  company,  when 
it  would  compleat  our  Felecity  —  but  such  is  the 

fate 


196    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND  GOODWIVES. 

fate  of  Mortals  !  We  are  never  permitted  to  be 
perfectly  happy.  I  suppose  it  is  all  right,  else 
the  Supreme  Disposer  of  all  things  would  have 
not  permitted  it,  we  should  perhaps  have  been 
more  neglectful  than  we  are  of  our  duty. 

She  frequently  forgets  to  use  the  pomp- 
ous name  of  Marcia,  especially  when  writ- 
ing on  any  subject  that  really  interests 
her:  — 

You  may  depend  upon  it  Polly  this  said  Matri- 
mony alters  us  mightily.  I  am  afraid  it  alienates 
us  from  every  one  else.  It  is  I  fear  the  ban  of 
Female  Friendship.  Let  it  not  be  with  ours 
Polly  if  we  should  ever  Marry.  Farewell  my 
love,  may  Heaven  shower  blessings  on  your  head 
prays  your  Lucinda.  (I  always  forget  to  make 
use  of  our  other  name.) 

Even  so  sensible  and  intelligent  a  woman 
as  Abigail  Adams  corresponded  under  the 
names  Diana  or  Portia,  while  her  friends 
masqueraded  as  Calliope,  Myra,  Aspasia,  and 
Aurelia.  Wives  wrote  to  their  husbands, 
giving  them  fanciful  or  classical  names. 
This  of  course  was  no  new  fashion.  Did 
not  Shakespeare  write  :  — 

Adoptedly  —  as  school-maids  change  their  name 
By  vain  though  apt  affection. 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  MANNERS,     igf 

It  is  evident  that  in  spite  of  all  the  out- 
ward dignity  shown  in  these  pompous  forms 
of  address,  and  in  a  most  ceremonial  and  re- 
served bearing  in  public,  there  existed  in 
private  life  much  rudeness  of  demeanor  and 
much  freedom  in  manner.  Let  me  quote 
again  from  the  vivacious  pages  of  the  young 
lady  of  Virginia :  — 

The  Gentlemen  dined  today  at  Mr  Massinbirds. 
We  have  supped,  and  the  gentlemen  are  not  re- 
turned yet.  Lucy  and  myself  are  in  a  peck  of 
troubles  for  fear  they  should  return  drunk.  Sis- 
ter has  had  our  bed  moved  in  her  room.  Just 
as  we  were  undress'd  and  going  to  bed  the  Gen- 
tlemen arrived,  and  we  had  to  scamper.  Both 
tipsy! 

Today  is  Sunday.  Brother  was  so  worsted  by 
the  frolick  yesterday,  we  did  not  set  off  today. 
Mr  C.  Washington  returned  today  from  Freder- 
icksburg.  You  cant  think  how  rejoiced  Hannah 
was,  nor  how  dejected  in  his  absence  she  always 
is.  You  may  depend  upon  it  Polly  this  said 
Matrimony  alters  us  mightely.  Hannah  and  my- 
self were  going  to  take  a  long  walk  this  evening 
but  were  prevented  by  the  two  Horred  Mortals 
Mr  Pinkard  and  Mr  Washington,  who  siezed  and 
kissed  me  a  dozen  times  in  spite  of  all  the  resist- 
ance I  could  make.  They  really  think,  now 

they 


198    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

they  are  married,  they  are  prevaliged  to  do  any- 
thing. .  .  . 

When  we  got  here  we  found  the  house  pretty 
full.  I  had  to  dress  in  a  great  hurry  for  dinner. 
We  spent  the  evening  very  agreeably  in  chatting. 
Milly  Washington  is  a  thousand  times  prettyer 
than  I  thought  her  at  first  and  very  agreeable. 
About  sunset  Nancy,  Milly  and  myself  took  a 
walk  in  the  Garden  (it  is  a  most  beautiful  place). 
We  were  mighty  busy  cutting  thistles  to  try  our 
sweethearts,  when  Mr  Washington  caught  us; 
and  you  cant  conceive  how  he  plagued  us  — 
chased  us  all  over  the  Garden  and  was  quite 
impertinent.  I  must  tell  you  of  our  frolic  after 
we  went  to  our  room.  We  took  a  large  dish  of 
bacon  and  beef ;  after  that,  a  bowl  of  Sago 
cream  ;  and  after  that  an  apple-pye.  While  we 
were  eating  the  apple-pye  in  bed  —  God  bless 
you,  making  a  great  noise  —  in  came  Mr  Wash- 
ington dressed  in  Hannah's  short  gown  and  peti- 
coat,  and  seazed  me  and  kissed  me  twenty  times, 
in  spite  of  all  the  resistance  I  could  make ;  and 
then  Cousin  Molly.  Hannah  soon  followed 
dressed  in  his  Coat.  They  joined  us  in  eating 
the  apple-pye  and  then  went  out.  After  this  we 
took  it  into  our  heads  to  want  to  eat  oysters.  We 
got  up,  put  on  our  rappers  and  went  down  in  the 
Seller  to  get  them ;  do  you  think  Mr  Washington 
did  not  follow  us  and  scear  us  just  to  death.  We 

went 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  MANNERS.     199 

went  up  tho,  and  eat  our  oysters.  We  slept  in 
the  old  ladys  room  too,  and  she  sat  laughing  fit 
to  kill  herself  at  us. 

Now,  these  were  no  folk  of  low  degree. 
The  lively  and  osculatory  Mr.  Washington 
was  Corbin  Washington.  He  married  Han- 
nah, daughter  of  Richard  Henry  Lee.  Their 
grandson,  John  A.  Washington,  was  the  last 
of  the  family  to  occupy  Mount  Vernon.  Mr. 
Pinkard  also  had  a  delicate  habit  of  "  bolting 
in  upon  us,  and  overhearing  part  of  our  con- 
veasation  in  our  rooms,  which  hily  delighted 
him,"  trying  to  seize  the  girls'  letters,  dress- 
ing in  women's  clothes,  and  other  manly  and 
gentlemanly  pleasantries. 

Sarah  Eve  records  in  her  journal  an 
equally  affectionate  state  of  manners  in  Phil- 
adelphian  society  in  1722.  She  writes  :  — 

In  the  morning  Dr  Shippen  came  to  see  us. 
What  a  pity  it  is  that  the  Doctor  is  so  fond  of 
kissing.     He  really  would  be  much  more  agree- 
able if   he  were  less  fond.     One  hates  to  bej) 
always  kissed,  especially  as  it  is  attended  with  \v 
so  many  inconveniences^    It    decomposes    the  ( 
economy  of  ones  handkerchief,  it  disorders  ones 
high  roll,  and  it  ruffles  the  serenity  of  ones  coun-  •.' 
tenance. 

Though 


2OO    COLONIAL   DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

Though  there  was  great  talk  made  of  gal- 
lant and  chivalric  bearing  toward  the  ladies, 
it  is  evident  that  occasional  rudeness  of  man- 
ner still  existed.  A  writer  in  the  Royal 
Gazette  of  August  16,  1780,  thus  complains 
of  New  York  swains  :  — 

As  the  Mall  seems  to  be  the  chief  resort  for 
company  of  an  evening  I  am  surprized  that  there 
is  no  more  politeness  and  decorum  observ'd  by 
the  masculine  gender.  In  short  there  is  seldom 
a  seat  in  that  agreeable  walk  that  is  not  taken 
up  by  the  gentlemen.  This  must  be  very  dis- 
agreeable to  the  fair  sex  in  general  whose  ten- 
der delicate  limbs  may  be  tired  with  the  fa- 
tigues of  walking,  and  bend,  denied  a  seat  to  rest 
them. 

I  cannot  discover  that  anything  of  the 
nature  of  our  modern  chaperonage  was 
known  in  colonial  days.  We  find  the  early 
travellers  such  as  Dunton  taking  many  a 
long  ride  with  a  fair  maid  a-pillion  back  be- 
hind them.  In  1750  Captain  Francis  Goelet 
made  a  trip  through  New  England.  He  con- 
sorted only  with  the  fashionable  folk  of  the 
day,  and  he  appeared  to  find  in  them  a  very 
genial  and  even  countrified  simplicity  of 
manners.  He  tells  of  riding  to  "Turtle 

Frolicks" 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  MANNERS.    2OI 

Frolicks"  and  country  dances  with  young 
ladies  of  refinement  and  good  station  in  life. 
To  one  of  the  finer  routs  at  Cambridge  he 
rode  with  Miss  Betty  Wendell  in  a  chaise. 
There  were  twenty  couples  in  all  who  went 
to  this  Frolick,  all,  he  says  complacently,  the 
"Best  Fashion  in  Boston."  Young  men 
escorted  young  girls  to  dancing-parties,  and 
also  accompanied  them  home  after  the  dance 
was  finished. 

Weddings  were  everywhere,  throughout 
the  middle  and  southern  colonies,  scenes  of 
great  festivity. 

I  have  been  much  interested  and  amused 
in  reading  the  Diary  of  Jacob  Hiltzheimer, 
of  Philadelphia  (which  has  recently  been  pub- 
lished), to  note  his  references  to  the  deep 
drinking  at  the  weddings  of  the  day.  One 
entry,  on  February  14,  1767,  runs  thus: 
"  At  noon  went  to  William  Jones  to  drink 
punch,  met  several  of  my  friends  and  got 
decently  drunk.  The  groom  could  not  be 
accused  of  the  same  fault."  This  cheerful 
frankness  reminds  us  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's 
similar  ingenuous  expression :  "  Sgme  of  our  _A 
captains  garoused  of  wine  till  they  were  rea- 
sonable pleasant." 

This 


2O2     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

This  William  Jones  was  married  eighteen 
years  later  to  a  third  wife,  and  again  kept 
open  house,  and  once  more  friend  Jacob 
called  on  the  bride  and  ate  the  wedding-cake 
and  drank  the  wedding-punch.  Nay,  more, 
he  called  four  days  in  succession,  and  at  the 
end  "  rode  all  the  afternoon  to  wear  off  the 
effects  of  the  punch  and  clear  my  head." 
At  one  bride's  house,  Mrs.  Robert  Erwin's, 
record  was  kept  that  for  two  days  after  the 
wedding,  between  three  and  four  hundred 
gentlemen  had  called,  drank  punch,  and  prob- 
s  ably  kissed  the  bride. 

r  It  was  the  universal  Philadelphia  custom 
for  the  groom's  friends  to  call  thus  for  two 

i  days  at  his  house  and  drink  punch,  and  every 

1  evening  for  a  week  large  tea-parties  were 
given  by  the  bride,  the  bridesmaids  and 
groomsmen  always  in  attendance.  Some- 
times a  coaching  trip  was  taken  by  the  en- 

•  tire  bridal  party  out  on  the  Lancaster  pike, 
for  a  wedding  breakfast. 

Similar  customs  prevailed  in  New  York. 
In  a  letter  written  by  Hannah  Thompson  I 
read  of  bridal  festivities  in  that  town. 

The  Gentlemans  Parents  keep  Open  house 
just  in  the  same  manner  as  the  Brides  Parents. 

The 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  MANNERS.    203 

The  Gentlemen  go  from  the  Bridegroom  house 
to  drink  punch  with  and  give  Joy  to  his  Father. 
The  Brides  visitors  go  in  the  same  manner  from 
the  Brides  to  her  mothers  to  pay  their  compli- 
ments to  her.  There  is  so  much  driving  about 
at  these  times  that  in  our  narrow  streets  there 
is  some  danger.  The  Wedding  house  resembles 
a  beehive.  Company  perpetually  flying  in  and 
out. 

In  a  new  country,  with  novel  methods  of 
living,  and  unusual  social  relations,  there 
were  some  wild  and  furious  wooings.  None 
were  more  coarsely  extraordinary  than  the 
courting  of  young  Mistress  Burwell  by  the 
Governor  of  the  colony  of  Virginia,  an  in- 
temperate, blustering  English  ruffian  named 
Nicholson.  He  demanded  her  hand  in  an 
Orientally  autocratic  manner,  and  when  nei- 
ther she  nor  her  parents  regarded  him  with 
favor,  his  rage  and  determination  knew  no 
bounds.  He  threatened  the  lives  of  her 
father  and  mother  "with  mad  furious  dis- 
tracted speech."  When  Parson  Fouace 
came,  meekly  riding  to  visit  poor  Mr.  Bur- 
well,  his  parishioner,  who  was  sick  (naturally 
enough),  the  Governor  set  upon  him  with 
words  of  abuse,  pulled  the  clerical  hat  off, 

drew 


2O4     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

drew  his  sword,  and  threatened  the  clerical 
life,  until  the  parson  fled  in  dismay.  Fancy- 
ing that  the  brother  of  Commissary  Blair, 
the  President  of  the  Virginia  College,  was  a  . 
would-be  suitor  to  his  desired  fair  one,  he 
assailed  the  President  with  insane  jealousy, 
saying,  "  Sir,  your  brother  is  a  villain  and  you 
have  betrayed  me,"  and  he  swore  revenge 
on  the  entire  family.  To  annoy  further  the 
good  President,  he  lent  his  pistols  to  the 
wicked  college  boys  that  they  might  thus 
keep  the  President  out  of  the  college  build- 
ings. He  vowed  if  Mistress  Burwell  mar- 
ried any  one  but  himself  he  would  cut  the 
throat  of  bridegroom,  minister,  and  justice 
who  issued  the  marriage  license.  The  noise 
of  his  abuse  reached  England,  and  friends 
wrote  from  thence  protesting  letters  to  him. 
At  last  the  Council  united  and  succeeded  in 
procuring  his  removal.  Poor  President  Blair 
did  not  fare  well  under  other  governors,  and 
both  College  and  President  were  fiercely 
hated  by  Governor  Andros  ;  and  "  a  sparkish 
young  gentleman,"  the  grandfather  of  Mar- 
tha Washington's  first  husband,  to  show  his 
zeal  for  his  gubernatorial  friend,  went  into 
church  and  "  with  great  fury  and  violence  " 

pulled 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  MANNERS.     20$ 

pulled  Mrs.  Blair  out  of  her  pew  in  the  face 
of  the  minister  and  the  whole  congregation 
—  and  this  in  the  stately  old  cavalier  days. 

One  very  curious  duty  devolved  on  young 
girls  at  that  day.  They  often  served  as 
pall-bearers.  At  the  funeral  of  Mrs.  Daniel 
Phoenix  the  pall-bearers  were  women,  and 
when  Mrs.  John  Morgan,  sister  of  Francis 
Hopkinson,  died  in  Philadelphia,  her  brother 
wrote  of  her  funeral :  — 

The  morning  was  snowy  and  severely  cold, 
and  the  walking  very  dangerous  and  slippery, 
never  the  less  a  number  of  respectable  citizens 
attended  the  funeral  and  the  pall  was  borne  by 
the  first  ladies  of  the  place. 

Sarah  Eve,  in  her  diary,  writes  in  1772,  in 

a  somewhat  flippant  manner :  "  R.  Rush,  P. 

Dunn,  K.  Vaughan,  and  myself  carried  Mr. 

Ash's  child  to  be  buried ;  foolish  custom  for 

girls  to  prance  it  through  the  streets  without 

hats  or  bonnets ! "     At  the  funeral  of  Fanny 

Durdin  in  1812,  the  girl  pall-bearers 

were  dressed  in  white,  and 

wore  long  white 

veils. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THEIR   AMUSEMENTS    AND   ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 

OF  amusements  for  women  in  the  first 
century  of  colonial  life,  we  can  almost 
say  there  were  none.  There  was  in  New 
England  no  card-playing,  no  theatre-going, 
no  dancing.  The  solemn  Thursday  lecture 
was  the  sole  mid-week  gathering.  Occasion- 
ally there  was  the  excitement  of  Training 
Day.  In  the  South  the  distances  were  too 
great  from  plantation  to  plantation  for  fre- 
quent friendly  meetings.  As  time  went  on, 
cooperation  in  gathering  and  storing  the 
various  food-harvests  afforded  opportunities 
for  social  intercourse.  Apple-parings  and 
corn-huskings  were  autumnal  delights,  but 
when  these  were  over,  the  charing  youth 
found  no  recreations  through  the  long,  snowy 
months  in  country  homes,  and  but  scant  op- 
portunity for  amusement  in  town.  No  won- 
der that  they  turned  eagerly  to  the  singing' 
school,  and  found  in  that  innocent  gathering 

a 


THEIR  AMUSEMENTS,  ETC.  2O/ 

a  safety-valve  for  the  pent-up  longing  for 
diversion  which  burned  in  young  souls  then 
as  now.     We  can  but  wonder  how,  ere  the 
singing-school  became  a  force,  young  New      / 
Englanders  became  acquainted  enough  with    / 
each  other  to  think  of  marriage;  and  we 
can  almost  regard  the  establishment  of  the  ' 
study  of  fugue  and   psalm    singing  as  the 
preservation  of  the  commonwealth. 

In  Virginia  the  different  elements  of  life 
developed  characteristic  pastimes,  and  by  the 
first  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century  there 
were  opportunities  of  diversion  offered  for 
women. 

We  have  preserved  to  us  an  exact  ac- 
count of  the  sports  which  were  enjoyed  by 
both  Virginian  men  and  women.  It  may  be 
found  in  the  Virginia  Gazette  for  October, 
1737:  — 

We  have  advices  from  Hanover  County  that 
on  St  Andrews  Day  there  are  to  be  Horse  Races 
and  several  other  Diversions  for  the  entertain- 
ment of  the  Gentlemen  and  Ladies,  at  the  Old 
Field,  near  Captain  John  Bickertons,  in  that 
County  if  permitted  by  the  Hon  Wm  Byrd  Esq 
Proprietor  of  said  land,  the  substance  of  which 
is  as  follows  viz : 

It 


2O8     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

It  is  proposed  that  20  Horses  or  Mares  do  run 
around  a  three  mile  course  for  a  prize  of  five 
pounds. 

That  a  Hat  of  the  value  of  205  be  cudgelled 
for,  and  that  after  the  first  challenge  made  the 
Drums  are  to  beat  every  Quarter  of  an  hour  for 
three  challenges  round  the  Ring  and  none  to 
play  with  their  Left  hand. 

That  a  violin  be  played  for  by  20  Fiddlers ;  no 
person  to  have  the  liberty  of  playing  unless  he 
bring  a  fiddle  with  him.  After  the  prize  is  won 
they  are  all  to  play  together  and  each  a  different 
tune,  and  to  be  treated  by  the  company. 

That  12  Boys  of  12  years  of  age  do  run  112 
yards  for  a  hat  of  the  cost  of  12  shillings. 

That  a  Flag  be  flying  on  said  Day  30  feet  high. 

That  a  handsome  entertainment  be  provided 
for  the  subscribers  and  their  wives  ;  and  such  of 
them  as  are  not  so  happy  as  to  have  wives  may 
treat  any  other  lady. 

That  Drums  Trumpets  Hautboys  &c  be  pro- 
vided to  play  at  said  entertainment. 

That  after  Dinner  the  Royal  Health  His  Honor 
the  Governor's  &c  are  to  be  drunk. 

That  a  Quire  of  Ballads  be  sung  for  by  a  num- 
ber of  Songsters,  all  of  them  to  have  liquor  suf- 
ficient to  clear  their  Wind  Pipes. 

That  a  pair  of  Silver  Buckles  be  wrestled  for 
by  a  number  of  brisk  young  men. 

That 


THEIR  AMUSEMENTS,  ETC.  209 

That  a  pair  of  handsome  Shoes  be  danced  for. 

That  a  pair  of  handsome  Silk  Stockings  of  one 
Pistole  value  be  given  to  the  handsomest  young 
country  maid  that  appears  in  the  field. 

With  many  other  whimsical  and  Comical  Diver- 
sions too  numerous  to  mention. 

And  as  this  mirth  is  designed  to  be  purely 
innocent  and  void  of  offence,  all  persons  resort- 
ing there  are  desired  to  behave  themselves  with 
decency  and  sobriety ;  the  subscribers  being 
resolved  to  discountenance  all  immorality  with 
the  utmost  rigor. 

There  is  a  certain  rough  and  noisy  hearti- 
ness in  this  rollicking  Racing  Day  in  old 
Virginia  that  speaks  of  boisterous  cheer  akin 
to  the  days  of  "  merrie  England,"  and  which 
seems  far  from  disagreeable  when  contrasted 
with  the  dull  yearly  round  of  sober  days  in 
New  England.  Virginia  and  Maryland  men 
had  many  social  clubs  "  to  promote  innocent 
mirth  and  ingenious  humour,"  but  of  course 
within  these  clubs  their  consorts  and  daugh- 
ters were  not  guests.  A  ball  or  a  country 
dance  were  the  chief  amusements  of  South- 
ern women,  and  very  smart  functions  some 
of  these  balls  were,  though  they  did  begin  in 
broad  daylight. 

An 


2IO     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

An  early  account  was  given  by  a  travel- 
ling Virginian,  William  Black,  of  a  Govern- 
ment Ball  in  the  Council  Room  at  Annapo- 
lis in  1744. 

The  Ladies  of  Note  made  a  Splendant  Ap- 
pearance. In  a  Room  Back  from  where  they 
Danc'd  was  Several  Sorts  of  Wines,  Punch  and 
Sweetmeats.  In  this  Room  those  that  was  not 
engaged  in  any  Dancing  Match  might  better 
employ  themselves  at  Cards,  Dice,  Backgammon, 
or  with  a  cheerful  Glass.  The  Ladies  were  so 
very  agreeable  and  seem'd  so  intent  on  Dancing 
that  one  might  have  Imagin'd  they  had  some 
Design  on  the  Virginians,  either  Designing  to 
make  Tryal  of  their  Strength  and  Vigour,  or  to 
convince  them  of  their  Activity  and  Sprightli- 
ness.  After  several  smart  engagements  in  which 
no  advantage  on  either  side  was  Observable,  with 
a  mutual  Consent  about  i  of  the  Clock  in  the 
Morning  it  was  agreed  to  break  up,  every  Gen- 
tleman waiting  on  his  Partner  home. 

The  method  in  which  a  ball  was  con. 
ducted  somewhat  more  than  a  century  ago 
in  Louisville  was  thus  told  by  Maj.  Samuel 
S.  Forman,  who  visited  that  town  as  a  young 
man. 

After 


THEIR  AMUSEMENTS,  ETC.  211 

After  the  managers  had  organized  the  Com- 
pany by  drawing  numbers  and  appointing  the 
opening  with  a  Minuet,  Uncle  was  called  on  and 
introduc'd  to  a  Lady  for  the  opening  scene.  The 
Managers  who  distributed  the  numbers  called 
Gentn  No.  i,  he  takes  his  stand  —  Lady  No.  i, 
she  rises  from  her  seat,  the  Manager  leads  her 
to  the  floor  and  introduces  Gentn  No.  i,  &  so  on 
till  the  floor  is  full.  After  all  the  Company  have 
been  thus  call'd  out  then  the  Gentn  are  free  to 
seek  his  Partner  but  no  monopoly.  Lady  at  the 
head  chooses  the  figure,  but  it  is  considered  out 
of  order  for  one  Lady  to  head  a  figure  twice  un- 
less all  have  been  at  the  head.  If  there  happen 
to  be  some  ladies  to  whom  from  mistake  or  other- 
wise have  been  passed  the  Managers  duty  is  to 
see  to  it.  And  another  Custom  was  for  a  Gentn 
to  call  on  a  Lady  &  inform  her  of  an  intended 
ball  &  ask  permission  to  see  her  to  the  place  & 
see  her  safe  home  again.  If  the  Gentn  does  not 
draw  such  Lady  for  the  first  Contra  Dance  he 
generally  engages  her  for  the  first  Volunteer. 
At  the  Refreshments  the  Gentn  will  by  instinct 
without  Chesterfieldian  monition  see  that  his 
betterhalf  (for  the  time  being)  has  a  quantum 
sujficit  and  that  without  cramming  his  jaws  full 
until  he  has  reconducted  her  to  the  ball-room, 
then  he  is  at  liberty  to  absent  himself  for  a  while. 
There  were  two  young  gentlemen  there  from 

New 


212     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

New  York  who  were  much  attached  to  each 
other.  They  promised  to  let  each  other  know 
when  a  ball  was  on  foot  At  one  time  one  came 
to  the  other  and  told  him  to  prepare  his  pumps 
against  such  an  evening.  The  answer  was  — 
Pumps  out  of  order,  must  decline.  No  Sir  that 
will  not  do.  Then  Sir  you  have  been  buying 
Several  pair  of  handsome  Mocassons  for  New 
York  Ladies.  If  you  will  lend  me  one  pair  & 
you  will  put  on  one  pair  (it  wont  hurt  them)  I 
will  go.  Snaps  his  fingers  —  the  very  thing.  The 
next  ball  after  this  Moccasons  became  very  fash- 
ionable. So  many  fashions  have  their  origins 
from  Necessity. 

A  traveller  named  Bennet  gives  us  an 
account  of  the  amusements  of  Boston  wo- 
men in  the  middle  of  the  century,  when 
dancing  was  slowly  becoming  fashionable. 

For  their  domestic  amusements  every  after- 
noon after  drinking  tea,  the  gentlemen  and  ladies 
walk  the  Mall,  and  from  there  adjourn  to  one 
anothers  house  to  spend  the  evening,  those  that 
are  not  disposed  to  attend  the  evening  lecture 
which  they  may  do  if  they  please  six  nights  in  the 
seven  the  year  round.  What  they  call  the  Mall 
is  a  walk  on  a  fine  green  Common  adjoining  to 
the  south  east  side  of  the  town.  The  Govern- 
ment 


THEIR  AMUSEMENTS,  ETC.  213 

ment  being  in  the  hands  of  dissenters  they  dont 
admit  of  plays  or  music  houses ;  but  of  late  they 
have  sent  up  an  assembly  to  which  some  of  the 
ladies  resort.     But  they  are  looked  upon  to  be 
none  of  the  nicest,  in  regard  to  their  reputation, 
and  it  is  thought  it  will  be  soon  suppressed  for  it 
is  much  taken  notice  of  and  exploded  by  the 
religious  and  sober  part  of  the  people.      But 
notwithstanding  plays  and  such  like  diversions 
do  not  obtain  here,  they  dont  be  dispirited  or 
moped  for  the  want  of  them ;  for  both  the  ladies 
and  gentlemen  dress  and  appear  as  gay  in  com- 
mon as  courtiers  in  England  on  a  coronation  or 
birthday.     And  the  ladies  visit  here,  drink  tea/N 
indulge  in  every  little  piece  of  gentility  to  the  V^ 
height  of  the  mode,  and  neglect  the  affairs  of  Q 
the  family  with  as  good  a  grace  as  the  finest    "H 
ladies  in  London. 

The  Marquis  de  Chastellux  writes  of  the 
Philadelphia  assembly  in  1780  :  — 

The  assembly  or  subscription  ball,  of  which  I 
must  give  an  account  may  here  be  introduced. 
At  Philadelphia,  there  are  places  appropriated 
for  the  young  people  to  dance  in  and  where 
those  whom  that  amusement  does  not  suit  may 
play  at  different  games  of  cards,  but  at  Philadel- 
phia games  of  commerce  are  alone  allowed.  A 
manager  or  Master  of  Ceremonies  presides  at 

the 


214    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

the  methodical  amusements ;  he  presents  to  the 
gentlemen  and  lady  dancers,  billets  folded  up 
containing  each  a  number ;  thus  fate  decides  the 
male  or  female  partner  for  the  whole  evening. 
All  the  dances  are  previously  arranged  and  the 
dancers  are  called  in  their  turns.  These  dances, 
like  the  toasts  we  drink  at  table,  have  some  re- 
lation to  politics;  one  is  called  The  Successful 
Campaign,  another  Bourgoynes  Defeat,  a  third 
Clintons  Retreat.  The  managers  are  generally 
chosen  from  among  the  most  distinguished  offi- 
cers of  the  army.  Colonel  Mitchell,  a  little  fat 
squat  man,  was  formerly  the  manager,  but  when 
I  saw  him  he  had  descended  from  the  magistracy 
and  danced  like  a  common  citizen.  He  is  said 
to  have  exercised  his  office  with  great  severity, 
and  it  is  told  of  him,  that  a  young  lady  who  was 
figuring  in  a  country  dance,  having  forgot  her 
turn  through  conversing  with  a  friend,  he  came 
up  to  her  and  called  out  aloud,  "  Give  over,  Miss, 
take  care  what  you  are  about.  Do  you  think 
you  come  here  for  your  pleasure  ?  " 

The  dance,  A  Successful  Campaign,  was 
the  one  selected  by  diplomatic  Miss  Peggy 
Champlin  to  open  the  ball,  when  she  danced 
in  Newport  with  General  Washington,  to  the 
piping  of  De  Rochambeau  and  his  fellow 
officers.  This  was  "  the  figure  "  of  A  Suc- 
cessful 


THEIR  AMUSEMENTS,  ETC.  21$ 

cessfid  Campaign.     "  Lead  down  two  couples 
on  the  outside  and  up  the  middle  ;  second     / 
couple  do  the  same,  turn  contrary  partners, 
cast  off,  right  hand  and  left."    It  was  simple, 
was  it  not  —  but  I  doubt  not  it  was  dignified 


and  of  sedate  importance  when  Washington 
footed  it.  t  XV> 


Stony  Point  was  another  favorite  of  Revo-  /ota 
lutionary  days  —  for  did  not  General  Wayne 
successfully  storm  the  place?  This  dance 
was  more  difficult ;  the  directions  were  some-  T 
what  bewildering.  "  First  couple  three  hands 
round  with  the  second  lady  —  allemand. 
Three  hands  round  with  the  second  gentle- 
\  man  —  allemand  again.  Lead  down  two 
couples,  up  again,  cast  off  one  couple,  hands 
round  with  the  third,  right  and  left."  I 
scarcely  know  what  the  figure  "allemand" 
was.  The  German  allemande  was  then  an 
old  style  of  waltz,  slower  than  the  modern 
waltz,  but  I  can  scarcely  think  that  Wash- 
ington or  any  of  those  serious,  dignified  offi- 
cers waltzed,  even  to  slow  time. 

Another  obsolete  term  is  "foot  it." 

Come  and  foot  it  as  you  go 
On  the  light  fantastic  toe, 

seems 


2l6     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

seems  to  refer  to  some  definite  step  in  dan- 
cing. Sheridan  in  The  Rivals  thus  uses  the 
term  in  regard  to  dances  :  — 

I  'd  foot  it  with  e'er  a  captain  in  the  county, 
but  these  outlandish  heathen  allemandes  and 
cotillions  are  quite  beyond  me. 

But  "  footing  it "  and  "  outlandish  heathen 
allemandes "  are  not  so  misty  as  another 
term,  "to  haze."  In  the  Innocent  Maid 
they  "hazed."  "First  three  couples  haze, 
then  lead  down  the  middle  and  back  again, 
close  with  the  right  hand  and  left."  In  dan- 
cing the  Corsino  they  figured  thus  :  "  Three 
couples  foot  it  and  change  sides;  foot  it 
again  and  once  more  change  sides ;  three 
couples  allemand,  and  the  first  fall  in  the 
middle  then  right  hand  and  left." 

Dancing-masters'  advertisements  of  those 
days  often  give  us  the  list  of  modish  dances : 
"Allemandes  Vally's,  De  la  Cours,  Devon- 
shire Minuets  and  Jiggs." 

Burnaby  in  1759  wrote  of  a  special  pleas- 
ure of  the  Quaker  maids  of  Philadelphia  :  of 
fishing-parties. 

The  women  are  exceedingly  handsome  and 
polite.  They  are  naturally  sprightly  and  fond  of 

pleasure 


THEIR  AMUSEMENTS,  ETC.  2 If 

pleasure  and  upon  the  whole  are  much  more 
agreeable  and  accomplished  than  the  men.  Since 
their  intercourse  with  the  English  officers  they 
are  greatly  improved,  and  without  flattery,  many 
of  them  would  not  make  bad  figures  even  in  the 
first  assemblies  in  Europe.  Their  amusements 
are  chiefly  dancing  in  the  winter,  and  in  the 
summer  forming  parties  of  pleasure  upon  the 
Schuilkill,  and  in  the  country.  There  is  a  so- 
ciety of  sixteen  ladies  and  as  many  gentlemen 
called  The  fishing  company,  who  meet  once  a 
fortnight  upon  the  Schuilkill.  They  have  a  very 
pleasant  room  erected  in  a  romantic  situation 
upon  the  banks  of  that  river  where  they  gen- 
erally dine  and  drink  tea.  There  are  several 
pretty  walks  about  it,  and  some  wild  and  rugged 
rocks  which  together  with  the  water  and  fine 
groves  that  adorn  the  banks,  form  a  most  beauti- 
ful and  picturesque  scene.  There  are  boats  and 
fishing  tackle  of  all  sorts,  and  the  company 
divert  themselves  with  walking,  fishing,  going  up 
the  water,  dancing,  singing,  conversing,  or  just 
as  they  please.  The  ladies  wear  an  uniform  and 
appear  with  great  ease  and  advantage  from  the 
neatness  and  simplicity  of  it.  The  first  and 
most  distinguished  people  of  the  colony  are  of 
this  society  j  and  it  is  very  advantageous  to  a 
stranger  to  be  introduced  to  it,  as  he  hereby  gets 
acquainted  with  the  best  and  most  respectable 

company 


2l8     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

company  in  Philadelphia.  In  the  winter  when 
there  is  snow  upon  the  ground  it  is  usual  to 
make  what  they  call  sleighing  parties. 

He  says  of  New  York  society :  — 

The  women  are  handsome  and  agreeable 
5  though  rather  more  reserved  than  the  Philadel- 
phian  ladies.  Their  amusements  are  much  the 
same  as  in  Pensylvania ;  viz  balls  and  sleighing 
expeditions  in  the  winter,  and  in  the  summer 
going  in  parties  upon  the  water  and  fishing ;  or 
making  excursions  into  the  country.  There  are 
several  houses  pleasantly  situated  upon  East 
River  near  New  York  where  it  is  common  to 
have  turtle  feasts ;  these  happen  once  or  twice 
in  a  week.  Thirty  or  forty  gentlemen  and  ladies 
meet  and  dine  together,  drink  tea  in  the  after- 
noon, fish  and  amuse  themselves  till  evening  and 
then  return  home  in  Italian  chaises,  a  gentleman 
and  lady  in  each  chaise.  In  the  way  there  is  a 
bridge,  about  three  miles  distant  from  New  York 
which  you  always  pass  over  as  you  return,  called 
the  Kissing  Bridge  where  it  is  a  part  of  the  eti- 
quette to  salute  the  lady  who  has  put  herself 
under  your  protection. 

It  is  evident  from  these  quotations  and 
from  the  testimony  of  other  contemporary 
authors  that  one  of  the  chief  winter  amuse- 
ments 


THEIR  AMUSEMENTS,  ETC.  219 

ments  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia  and 
neighboring  towns  was  through  sleighing- 
parties.  Madam  Knights,  of  Boston,  writing 
in  1704  of  her  visit  to  New  York,  said  :  — 

Their  diversion  in  winter  is  riding  sleighs 
about  three  or  four  miles  out  of  town  where  they 
have  houses  of  entertainment  at  a  place  called 
the  Bowery,  and  some  go  to  friends  houses,  who 
handsomely  treat  them.  Mr.  Burroughs  carried 
his  spouse  and  daughter  and  myself  out  to  one 
Madam  Dowes  a  gentlewoman  that  lived  at  a 
farmhouse  who  gave  us  a  handsome  entertain- 
ment of  five  or  six  dishes  and  choice  beer  and 
metheglin,  etc,  all  which  she  said  was  the  pro- 
duce of  her  farm.  I  believe  we  met  fifty  or  sixty 
sleighs  that  day ;  they  fly  with  great  swiftness 
and  some  are  so  furious  that  they  will  turn  out 
of  the  path  for  none  except  a  loaded  cart. 

There  were  few  sleighs  at  that  date  in  Bos- 
ton. 

Sixty-four  years  later,  in  1768,  a  young 
English  officer,  Alexander  Macraby,  wrote 
thus  to  his  brother  of  the  pleasures  of  sleigh- 
ing : — 

You  can  never  have  had  a  party  in  a  sleigh  or 
sledge  I  had  a  very  clever  one  a  few  days  ago. 

Seven 


22O     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

Seven  sleighs  with  two  ladies  and  two  men  in 
each  proceeded  by  fiddlers  on  horseback  set  out 
together  upon  a  snow  of  about  a  foot  deep  on 
the  roads  to  a  public  house,  a  few  miles  from  town 
where  we  danced,  sung,  romped  and  eat  and 
drank  and  kicked  away  care  from  morning  till 
night,  and  finished  our  frolic  In  two  or  three 
side-boxes  at  the  play.  You  can  have  no  idea 
of  the  state  of  the  pulse  seated  with  pretty  women 
mid-deep  in  straw,  your  body  armed  with  furs 
and  flannels,  clear  air,  bright  sunshine,  spotless 
sky,  horses  galloping,  every  feeling  turned  to  joy 
and  jollity. 

That  older  members  of  society  then,  as 
now,  did  not  find  sleighing  parties  alto- 
gether alluring,  we  learn  from  this  sentence 
in  a  letter  of  Hannah  Thompson  written  to 
John  Mifflin  in  1786  :  — 

This  Slaying  match  Mr  Houston  of  Houston 
St  gave  his  Daughters,  Dear  Papa,  Dear  Papa, 
do  give  us  a  slaying  —  he  at  last  consented,  told 
them  to  get  ready  and  dress  themselves  warm, 
which  they  accordingly  did  and  came  running. 
We  are  ready  papa.  He  ordered  the  Servants  to 
have  some  burnt  wine  against  they  came  back. 
He  desir'd  them  to  step  upstairs  with  him  be- 
fore they  went.  As  soon  as  they  got  in  an  At- 

tick 


THEIR  AMUSEMENTS,  ETC.  221 

tick  chamber,  he  threw  up  all  the  windows  and 
seated  them  in  two  old  Ann  Chairs  and  began 
to  whip  and  Chirrup  with  all  the  Spirit  of  a 
Slaying  party.  And  after  he  kept  them  long 
enough  to  be  sufficiently  cold  he  took  them  down 
and  call'd  for  the  Mulled  Wine  and  they  were 
very  glad  to  set  close  to  the  Fire  and  leave  Slay- 
ing for  those  who  were  too  warm. 

This  I  quote  to  execrate  the  memory  of 
Mr.  Houston  and  express  my  sympathy  for 
his  daughters. 

There  were  no  entertainments  more  pop- 
ular, from  the  middle  of  the  past  century 
to  the  early  years  of  this  one,  than  "  turtle  t  \ 
frolics."  what  Burnaby  called  turtle-feasts. 
Every  sea-captain  who  sailed  to  the  West 
Indies  intended  and  was  expected  to  bring 
home  a  turtle  on  the  return  voyage ;  and  if 
he  were  only  to  touch  at  the  West  Indies 
and  thence  pass  on  to  more  distant  shores, 
he  still  tried,  if  possible,  to  secure  a  turtle 
and  send  it  home  by  some  returning  vessel. 
In  no  seaport  town  did  the  turtle  frolic  come 
to  a  higher  state  of  perfection  than  in  New- 
port. Scores  of  turtles  were  borne  to  that 
welcoming  shore.  In  1752  George  Bresett, 
a  Newport  gentleman,  sailed  to  the  West 

Indies, 


222     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

Indies,  and  promptly  did  a  neighborly  and 
civic  duty  by  sending  home  to  his  friend 
Samuel  Freebody,  a  gallant  turtle  and  a 
generous  keg  of  limes.  Lime  juice  was  the 
fashionable  and  favorite  "souring"  of  the 
day,  to  combine  with  arrack  and  Barbadoes 
rum  into  a  glorious  punch.  The  turtle  ar- 
rived in  prime  condition,  and  Freebody 
handed  the  prize  over  to  a  slave-body  named 
Cuffy  Cockroach.  He  was  a  Guinea  Coast 
negro,  of  a  race  who  were  (as  I  have  noted 
before)  the  most  intelligent  of  all  the  Afri- 
cans brought  as  slaves  to  these  shores.  Any 
negro  who  acquired  a  position  of  dignity  or 
trust  or  skill  in  this  country,  in  colonial  days, 
was  sure  to  be  a  Guinea-boy.  Cuffy  Cock- 
roach followed  the  rule,  by  filling  a  position 
of  much  dignity  and  trust  and  skill  —  as 
turtle-cook.  He  was  a  slave  of  Jaheel  Bren- 
ton,  but  he  cooked  turtle  for  the  entire 
town.  The  frolic  was  held  at  Fort  George, 
on  Goat  Island,  on  December  23.  The 
guests,  fifty  ladies  and  gentlemen,  sailed 
over  in  a  sloop,  and  were  welcomed  with 
hoisted  flag  and  salute  of  cannon.  The  din- 
ner was  served  at  two,  tea  at  five,  and  then 
dancing  begun.  Pea  Straw,  Faithful  Shep- 
herd. 


THEIR  AMUSEMENTS,  ETC.  22$ 

herd,  Arcadian  Nuptials,  were  allemanded 
and  footed,  and  the  keg  of  limes  and  its  fel- 
low-ingredients kept  pace  with  the  turtle. 
The  moon  was  at  the  full  when  the  party 
landed  at  the  Newport  wharf  at  eleven,  but 
the  frolic  was  not  ended.  For  instead  of 
the  jolly  crowd  separating,  they  went  the 
rounds,  leaving  one  member  of  the  party  at 
a  time  at  his  own  door,  and  then  serenading 
him  or  her,  till  the  whole  company  had  been 
honored  in  succession.  When  Sammy  wrote 
to  Mr.  Bresett  he  said  :  — 

Upon  the  whole  the  entertainment  had  the 
preference  over  all  turtle  frolics  before  it,  and  Mr 
George  Bresetts  health  with  "  Honest  George  " 
was  freely  drank  in  a  cheerful  glass  by  every  per- 
son ;  and  at  the  request  of  the  company  I  return 
you  their  compliments  for  the  foundation  of  so 
agreeable  an  entertainment. 

We  find  even  so  staid  and  dignified  a  min- 
ister and  legislator  as  Manasseh  Cutler  writ- 
ing thus  in  Providence  in  1787:  — 

This  morning  I  received  a  polite  invitation 
from  Govenor  Bowen  in  the  name  of  a  large  com- 
pany to  join  them  in  a  Turtle  Frolic  about  six 
miles  out  of  town.  Mr  Hitchcock  and  other 
clergymen  of  the  town  were  of  the  party  but 

much 


224     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

much  against   my  inclination  I  was  obliged  to 
excuse  myself. 

The  traveller  who  drives  through  the  by- 
roads of  New  England  to-day  is  almost  ready 
to  assert  that  there  is  no  dwelling  too  poor 
or  too  lonely  to  contain  a  piano,  or  at  the 
very  least  a  melodeon  or  parlor  organ.  The 
sounds  of  Czerny's  exercises  issue  from  every 
farmhouse.  There  may  be  no  new  farm  im- 
plements, no  sewing-machine,  but  there  will 
surely  be  a  piano.  This  love  of  music  has 
ever  existed  on  those  rock-bound  shores, 
though  in  early  days  it  found  a  stunted  and 
sad  expression  in  hymn  tunes  only,  and  the 
performance  of  music  could  scarce  be  called 
a  colonial  accomplishment.  The  first  musical 
instruments  were  martial,  drums  and  fifes 
and  hautboys.  I  have  never  seen,  in  any 
personal  inventory,  the  notice  of  a  "_git- 
Jterne  "  as  in  similar  Virginian  lists. 

But  in  the  early  years  of  the  eighteenth 
century  a  few  spinets  must  have  been  ex- 
ported to  Boston  and  Philadelphia,  and  per- 
haps to  Virginia.  In  1712  an  advertisement 
was  placed  in  the  Boston  News-Letter  that 
the  Spinet  would  be  taught,  and  on  April  23, 
1716,  appeared  in  the  same  paper  :  — 

Note 


THEIR  AMUSEMENTS,  ETC.  22$ 

Note  that  any  Persons  may  have  all  Instru- 
ments of  Music  mended  or  Virginalls  or  Spinnets 
Strung  &  Tun'd,  at  a  Reasonable  Rate  &  like- 
wise may  be  taught  to  play  on  any  of  the  Instru- 
ments above  mentioned. 

In  August,  1740,  a  "Good  Spinnet"  was 
offered  for  sale,  and  soon  after  a  second-hand 
"Spinnet,"  and  in  January,  1750,  "Spinnet 
wire." 

On  September  18,  1769,  this  notice  ap- 
peared in  the  Boston  Gazette  and  Country 
Journal:  — 

It  is  with  pleasure  that  we  inform  the  Public 
that  a  few  days  since  was  ship'd  for  Newport  a 
very  Curious  Spinnet  being  the  first  ever  made 
in  America,  the  performance  of  the  ingenious 
Mr.  John  Harris  of  Boston  (son  of  the  late  Mr. 
Jos.  Harris  of  London,  Harpsichord  and  Spinnet 
Maker  deceased)  and  in  every  respect  does  honor 
to  that  Artist  who  now  carries  on  the  Business 
at  his  house  a  few  doors  Northward  of  Dr. 
Clarkes,  North  End  of  Boston. 

This  first  American  spinet  is  said  to  be 
still  in  existence  in  a  house  in  Newport  on 
the  corner  of  Thames  and  Gidley  streets. 
It  has  one  set  of  jacks  and  strings.  The 
hammers  have  crow-quills  which  press  on 

brass 


226     COLONIAL   DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

brass  strings.  It  has  ancient  neighbors.  In 
Bristol,  R.  I.,  is  a  triangular  spinet  four  feet 
long,  which  is  more  than  a  century  older  than 
the  town  which  is  now  its  home.  It  bears 
this  maker's  mark,  —  "  Johann  Hitchcock 
fecit  London  1520."  If  this  date  is  correct, 
it  is  the  oldest  spinet  known,  the  one  of 
Italian  manufacture  in  the  British  Museum 
being  dated  1521. 

At  the  rooms  of  the  Essex  Institute  in 
Salem,  Mass.,  is  an  old  spinet  made  by  Dr. 
Samuel  Blyth  in  that  town.  Henry  M. 
Brooks,  Esq.,  author  of  Olden  Time  Music, 
has  in  his  possession  a  bill  for  one  of  these 
American  spinets  that  shows  that  the  price 
in  1786  was  ;£i8.  In  the  Memorial  Hall  at 
Deerfield,  Mass.,  may  be  seen  another  di- 
lapidated one,  made  by  Stephanus  &  Keene. 
This  belonged  once  to  Mrs.  Sukey  Barker,  of 
Hingham. 

In  the  Newport  Mercury  of  May  17,  1773, 
is  advertised,  "To  be  sold  a  Spinnet  of  a 
proper  size  for  a  little  miss,  and  a  most  agree- 
able tone  —  plays  extremely  easy  on  the  keys. 
Inquire  of  the  Printer."  Advertisement  of 
the  sale  of  spinets  and  of  instruction  on  the 
spinet  do  not  disappear  from  the  newspapers 

in 


THEIR  AMUSEMENTS,  ETC.  22/ 

in  this  country  even  after  formidable  rivals 
and  successors,  the  harpsichord  and  forte- 
piano,  had  begun  to  be  imported  in  compara- 
tively large  numbers. 

The  tone  of  a  spinet  has  been  character- 
ized concisely  by  Holmes  in  his  poem,  The 
Opening  of  the  Piano,  —  the  "  spinet  with  its 
thin  metallic  thrills."  I  know  of  nothing 
more  truly  the  "  relic  of  things  that  have 
passed  away,"  more  completely  the  voice  of 
the  past,  than  the  tinkling  thrill  of  a  spinet. 
It  is  like  seeing  a  ghost  to  touch  the  keys, 
and  bring  forth  once  more  that  obsolete 
sound.  There  is  no  sound  born  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  that  at  all  resembles  it.  Like 
"loggerheads  "  in  the  coals  and  "lug-poles" 
in  the  chimney,  like  church  lotteries  and  tith- 
ingmen,  the  spinet  —  even  its  very  voice  — 
is  extinct. 

Since  in  the  News-Letter  first  quoted  in 
this  chapter  virginals  are  named,  I  think  the 
musical  instrument  of  Queen  Elizabeth  must 
have  been  tolerably  familiar  to  Bostonians. 
Judge  Sewall,  who  "  had  a  passion  for  music," 
writes  in  1690  of  fetching  his  wife's  "  vir- 
ginalls."  I  cannot  conceive  what  tunes 
Madam  Sewall  played  on  her  virginals,  no 

tawdry 


228     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

tawdry  ballads  and  roundelays,  no  minuets 
and  corams;  she  may  have  known  half  a 
dozen  long-metre  psalm  tunes  such  as  the 
Judge  set  for  so  many  years  in  meeting. 

"Forte-pianers"  were  imported  to  Amer- 
ica, as  were  other  musical  instruments.  It 
is  said  the  first  one  brought  to  New  England 
was  in  1785  by  John  Brown  for  his  daughter 
Sarah,  afterwards  Mrs.  Herreshoff.  It  is 
still  possessed  by  Miss  Herreshoff,  of  Bristol, 
R.  I.  The  first  brought  to  "  the  Cape  "  was 
a  dementi  of  the  date  1790,  and  found  for 
many  years  a  home  in  Falmouth.  It  is  in 
perfect  preservation,  a  dainty  little  inlaid  box 
lying  upon  a  slender  low  table,  with  tiny 
shelves  for  the  music  books,  and  a  tiny  little 
painted  rack  to  hold  the  music  sheets,  and  a 
pedal  fit  for  the  foot  of  a  doll.  It  is  now 
owned  by  Miss  Frances  Morse,  of  Worcester, 
Mass.  An  old  Broadwood  piano,  once  owned 
by  the  venerable  Dr.  Sweetser,  may  be  seen 
at  the  rooms  of  the  Worcester  Society  of 
Antiquity ;  and  still  another,  a  Clementi,  at 
the  Essex  Institute  in  Salem. 

By  the  beginning  of  this  century  piano- 
playing  became  a  more  common  accomplish- 
ment, especially  in  the  large  towns,  though 

General 


THEIR  AMUSEMENTS,  ETC.  229 

General  Oliver  said  that  in  1810,  among  the 
six  thousand  families  in  Boston,  there  were 
not  fifty  pianos.  Rev.  Manasseh  Cutler 
writes  in  1801,  from  Washington,  of  a  young 
friend :  — 

She  has  been  educated  at  the  best  schools  in 
Baltimore  and  Alexandria.  She  does  not  con- 
verse much,  but  is  very  modest  and  agreeable. 
She  plays  with  great  skill  on  the  Forte  Piano 
which  she  always  accompanies  with  the  most 
delightful  voice,  and  is  frequently  joined  in  the 
vocal  part  by  her  mother.  Mr.  King  has  an  ex- 
cellent Forte-Piano  which  is  connected  with  an 
organ  placed  under  it,  which  she  plays  and  fills 
with  her  feet,  while  her  fingers  are  employed  upon 
the  Forte-Piano.  On  Sunday  evenings  she  con- 
stantly plays  Psalm  music.  Miss  Anna  plays 
Denmark  remarkably  well.  But  the  most  of  the 
psalm  tunes  our  gentlemen  prefer  are  the  old 
ones  such  as  Old  Hundred,  Canterbury,  which 
you  would  be  delighted  to  hear  on  the  Forte- 
Piano  assisted  by  the  Organ.  Miss  Anna  gave 
us  some  good  music  this  evening,  particularly  the 
Wayworn  Traveller,  Ma  Chere  Amie,  The  Tea, 
The  Twins  of  Latma  (somewhat  similar  to  Indian 
Chief)  Eliza,  Lucy  or  Selims  Complaint.  These 
are  among  my  favourites. 

In 


230     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODW1VES. 

In  February,  1 800,  Eliza  Southgate  Bowne 
wrote  thus  in  Boston  :  — 

In  the  morning  I  am  going  to  look  at  some 
Instruments ;  however  we  got  one  picked  out  that 
I  imagine  we  shall  take,  150  dollars,  a  charming 
toned  one  and  not  made  in  this  country. 

In  June  she  said  enthusiastically  of  her 
"  Instrument : "  — 

I  am  learning  my  i2th  tune  Oh  Octavia,  I 
almost  worship  my  Instrument,  —  it  reciprocates 
my  joys  and  sorrows,  and  is  my  bosom  compan- 
ion. How  I  long  to  have  you  return !  I  have 
hardly  attempted  to  sing  since  you  went  away. 
I  am  sure  I  shall  not  dare  to  when  you  return. 
I  must  enjoy  my  triumph  while  you  are  absent ; 
my  musical  talents  will  be  dim  when  compared 
with  the  lustre  of  yours. 

The  most  universal  accomplishment  of 
colonial  women  was  the  making  of  samplers, 
if,  indeed,  anything  could  be  termed  an  ac- 
complishment which  was  so  rigidly  and  pro- 
saically part  of  their  education.  I  can  well 
imagine  the  disgrace  it  would  have  been  to 
any  little  miss  in  her  teens  a  century  ago  not 
to  be  able  to  show  a  carefully  designed  and 
wrought  sampler.  On  these  samplers  were 
displayed  the  alphabet,  sometimes  in  various 

shaped 


THEIR  AMUSEMENTS,  ETC.  2$l 

shaped  letters  —  thus  did  she  learn  to  mark 
neatly  her  household  linen  ;  bands  of  conven- 
tional designs,  of  flowers,  of  geometrical  pat-  . 
terns  —  thus  was  she  taught  to  embroider 
muslin  caps  and  kerchiefs;  and  there  were 
gorgeous  flowers  and  strange  buildings,  and 
domestic  scenes,  and  pastoral  views,  birds 
that  perched  as  large  as  cows,  and  roses  that 
were  larger  than  either ;  and  last  and  best  of 
all  (and  often  of  much  satisfaction  to  the 
genealogist),  there  was  her  name  and  her  age, 
and  sometimes  her  place  of  birth,  and  withal 
a  pious  verse  as  a  motto  for  this  housewifely 
shield.  Of  all  the  relics  of  old-time  life 
which  have  come  to  us,  none  are  more  inter- 
esting than  the  samplers.  Happily,  many  of 
them  have  come  to  us ;  worked  with  wiry 
enduring  crewels  and  silk  on  strong  linen 
canvas,  they  speak  down  through  the  cen- 
tury of  the  little,  useful,  willing  hands  that 
worked  them  ;  of  the  tidy  sempstresses  and 
housewives  of  those  simple  domestic  days. 
We  know  little  of  the  daughters  of  the  Pil- 
grims, but  Lora  Standish  has  sent  to  us  a 
prim  little  message  of  her  piety,  and  a  faded 
testimony  of  her  skill,  that  makes  her  seem 
dear  to  us  :  — 

Lora 


232     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

Lora  Standish  is  My  Name. 
Lord  Guide  my  heart  that  I  may  do  thy  Will 
Also  fill  my  hands  with  such  convenient  skill 
As  will  conduce  to  Virtue  void  of  Shame, 
And  I  will  give  the  Glory  to  Thy  Name. 

\ 

•  A  more  ambitious  kind  of  needlework  took 
the  form  of  what  were  known  as  mourning 
pieces.  These  were  regarded  with  deepest 
affection,  for  were  they  not  a  token  of  lov- 
ing remembrance  ?  They  bore  stiff  present- 
ments of  funeral  urns,  with  drooping  willows, 
or  a  monument  with  a  bowed  and  weeping 
figure.  Often  the  names  of  dead  members 
of  the  family  were  worked  upon  the  monu- 
ment A  still  more  ambitious  sampler  bore 
a  design  known  as  The  Tree  of  Life.  A 
stiffly  branched  tree  was  sparingly  hung  with 
apples  labelled  with  the  names  of  the  virtues 
of  humanity,  such  as  Love,  Honor,  Truth, 
Modesty,  Silence.  A  white-winged  angel  on 
one  side  of  this  tree  watered  the  roots  with 
a  very  realistic  watering-pot,  and  was  bal- 
anced with  exactness,  as  were  evenly  adjusted 
all  good  embroidery  designs  of  that  day,  by 
an  inky-black  Satan  who  bore  a  pitchfork  of 
colossal  proportions  and  a  tail  as  long  as  a 
kite's,  and  so  heavy  that  he  could  scarce  have 

dragged 


THEIR  AMUSEMENTS,  ETC.  233 

dragged  it  along  the  ground  —  much  less  with 
it  have  flown. 

For  many  years  a  favorite  and  much 
praised  accomplishment  was  the  cutting  of 
paper  in  ornamental  designs.  This  art  was 
ambitiously  called  Papyrotamia,  and  it  was  of 
special  usefulness  in  its  application  to  watch- 
papers,  a  favorite  lover's  token  of  the  day. 
The  watch  proper  at  that  time  was  separate 
and  removable  from  its  case,  which  was  of 
gold,  silver,  shagreen,  or  lacquer.  Of  course 
the  watch  did  not  fit  closely  into  the  case, 
and  watch-papers  were  placed  within  to  serve 
as  a  cushion  to  prevent  jar  and  wear;  some- 
times the  case  would  hold  several.  Artistic 
and  grotesque  taste  could  be  used  in  the 
manufacture  of  these  tokens  of  regard.  I 
have  seen  them  cut  in  various  open-work  de- 
signs from  gilt  and  silver  paper,  embroidered 
in  hair,  painted  in  water  colors.  One  I  have 
has  two  turtle-doves  billing  over  two  hearts, 
and  surrounded  by  a  tiny  wreath ;  another, 
embroidered  on  net,  has  the  words  "  God  is 
Love ; "  another  has  a  moss  rose  and  the 
words  "  Rejoice  and  blossom  as  a  rose."  An- 
other bears  a  funeral  urn,  and  is  evidently  in 
memoriam.  Still  another,  a  heart  and  arrows, 

and 


234    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

and  the  sentimental  legend  "  Kill  me  for  I  die 
of  love."  Jefferson,  writing  as  a  young  man, 
bitterly  deplores  his  inadvertent  tearing  of 
watch-papers  which  had  been  cut  for  him  by 
his  beloved  Belinda.  Watch  and  watch-pa- 
pers had  been  accidentally  soaked  in  water, 
and  when  he  attempted  to  remove  the  pa- 
pers, he  says,  "  My  cursed  fingers  gave  them 
such  a  rent  as  I  fear  I  shall  never  get  over. 
I  would  have  cried  bitterly,  but  that  I 
thought  it  beneath  the  dignity  of  a  man." 
And  he  trusts  the  fair  Becca  will  give  him 
another  paper  of  her  cutting,  which,  though 
but  a  plain  round  one,  he  will  esteem  more 
than  the  nicest  in  the  world  cut  by  other 
hands. 

Nothing  can  be  more  pathetic  than  the 
thoughtful  survey  of  the  crude  and  often 
cumbersome  and  ludicrous  attempts  at  dec- 
orative art,  through  which  the  stunted  and 
cramped  love  of  the  beautiful  found  expres- 
sion, until  our  own  day,  in  country  homes. 
The  dreary  succession  of  hair-work,  feather- 
work,  wax  flowers,  shell-work,  the  crystalliza- 
tion with  various  domestic  minerals  and  gums 
of  dried  leaves  and  grasses,  vied  with  yarn 
and  worsted  monstrosities,  and  bewildering 

patchwork. 


f 

THEIR  AMUSEMENTS,  ETC.  235 

patchwork.  Occasionally  some  bold  femi- 
nine spirit,  made  inventive  through  artistic 
longing,  gave  birth  to  a  novel,  though  too 
often  grotesque  form  of  decoration. 

A  most  interesting  symbol  of  exquisite 
neatness,  unbounded  patience,  and  blind 
groping  for  artistic  expression  was  Rhoda 
Baker's  "Leather-Works."  Rhoda  Baker 
lived  in  a  small  Rhode  Island  village,  which 
was  dull  at  its  birth  and  slow  of  growth  and 
progress.  She  had  a  nature  so  timid,  so 
repelling,  and  so  wholly  introspective,  that, 
after  nearly  fifty  years  of  shy  and  even  un- 
willing "keeping  company"  with  a  preach- 
ing elder  of  the  time,  —  a  saint,  almost  a 
mystic,  —  she  died  without  ever  having  given 
to  the  quaint,  thin,  pleasant-faced,  awkward 
man,  one  word  of  encouragement  to  his  equally 
timid,  his  hinting  and  halting  love-making. 
During  those  patient  years  of  warm  hopes, 
but  most  scanty  fruition,  he  had  built  a 
house  on  an  island  which  he  owned  in  Nar- 
ragansett  Bay,  with  a  window  where  his  be- 
loved Rhoda  could  sit  sewing  when  she  be- 
came his  wife,  and  watch  him  happily  rowing 
across  the  Bay  to  her ;  but  great  lilac  bushes 
grew  up  unchecked,  and  shaded  and  finally 

hid 


236    COLONIAL   DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

hid  the  window  at  which  Rhoda  never  sat  to 
welcome  her  husband-lover.  After  her  death 
the  Elder  so  grieved  that  he  had  naught  to 
remind  him  and  speak  to  him  of  his  beloved, 
that  he  boldly  decided  to  name  his  boat  for 
her ;  but  as  he  could  not  conscientiously  say 
she  had  ever  encouraged  him  by  word  or 
look  in  his  incipient  love-making,  and  he 
must  be  strictly  honest  and  chivalrously  re- 
spectful to  her  memory,  he  painted  upon 
the  boat  in  black  letters  this  truthful  yet 
dimly  consoling  legend,  "  Rhoda  Wouldnt." 
Poor  Elder !  Many  a  time  had  he  ventured 
a-courting,  and  slowly  entering,  after  his  un- 
answered assault  upon  the  door-knocker,  had 
found  the  kitchen  of  this  elusive  Rhoda  va- 
cant, —  but  her  rocking-chair  was  slowly  rock- 
ing, —  so  he  sadly  left  the  deserted  room,  the 
unwelcoming  house. 

He  sacrificed  his  life  to  his  affection  for 
his  dead  love.  He  had  all  his  days  a  fear, 
a  premonition,  that  he  should  lose  his  life 
through  a  horse,  so  he  never  rode  or  drove, 
but  walked,  rowed,  or  sailed,  and  lived  on  an 
island  to  escape  his  dreaded  doom.  When 
Rhoda's  brother  died  in  a  distant  town,  the 
Elder  was  bidden  to  the  funeral,  and  he 

honored 


TffEIR  AMUSEMENTS,  ETC.  2$? 

honored  his  Rhoda's  memory  by  his  attend- 
ance, and  he  had  to  ride  there.  As  he  left 
the  house  of  mourning,  a  fractious  young 
colt  ran  away  with  him,  threw  him  out  of  the 
wagon,  and  broke  his  neck. 

His  sweetheart's  "  Leather  -Works"  still 
exist,  to  keep  fresh  this  New  England 
romance.  I  saw  them  last  summer  in  the 
attic  of  the  Town  Hall.  Rhoda  left  them  in 
her  will  to  her  church,  and  they  are  now  the 
property  of  the  village  church-guild.  The 
guild  is  vigorous  and  young,  so  can  bear  this 
ancient  maiden's  bequest  with  cheerful  car- 
riage and  undaunted  spirits.  The  leather- 
works  are  many  and  ponderous.  One  is 
a  vast  trellis  (which  may  have  been  origi- 
nally two  clothes-horses),  hung  with  elabo- 
rately twisted  and  tendrilled  vines,  bearing 
minutely  veined  leaves  and  various  counter- 
feit and  imaginary  fruits.  The  bunches  of 
grapes  are  made  of  home-cast  leaden  bul- 
lets, or  round  stones,  covered  dexterously 
and  with  unparalleled  neatness  and  imper- 
ceptible stitches  with  pieces  of  old  kid  gloves 
or  thin  leather  ;  and  to  each  a  common  dress- 
hook  is  attached.  The  stem  of  the  bunch 
has  corresponding  eyes,  to  each  of  which  a 

grape 


238     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

grape  is  hung.  By  this  ingenious  means 
the  bunches  of  grapes  could  be  neatly  dusted 
each  week,  and  kept  in  repair,  as  well  as  eas- 
ily shaped.  On  this  trellis  hung  also  Roses 
of  Sharon,  a  mystic  flower  which  Rhoda's 
sister  Eunice  invented,  and  which  had  a 
deep  spiritual  signification,  as  well  as  extraor- 
dinary outline  and  intricate  composition. 
Every  leaf,  every  grape,  every  monstrous 
fruit,  every  flower  of  these  Leather- Works, 
speaks  of  the  aesthetic  longing,  the  vague 
mysticism,  the  stifled  repression,  of  Rhoda 
Baker's  life ;  and  they  speak  equally  of  the 
Elder's  love.  It  was  he  who  moulded  the 
bullets,  and  searched  on  the  shore  for  care- 
fully rounded  stones  ;  and  he  who  haunted 
the  country  saddlers  and  repair-shops  for 
waste  strips  of  leather,  which  he  often  de- 
posited in  the  silent  kitchen  by  the  rocking- 
chair,  sure  of  grateful  though  unspoken 
thanks.  Many  a  pair  of  his  old  boot-tops 
figures  as  glorious  vine  leaves ;  and  he 
even  tanned  and  dressed  skins  to  supply 
swiftly  the  artist's  materials  when  genius 
burned.  It  was  he  who  tenderly  unhooked 
the  grapes  and  pears,  the  fruits  of  Eden  and 
the  Roses  of  Sharon,  when  the  trellis  was 

transported 


\ 

THELR.   < 


AMUSEMENTS,  ETC.  239 

transported  f.o  the  Town  Hall,  and  he  rev- 
erently placed  the  trophies  of  his  true  love's 
skill  and  genius  in  place  in  their  new  home. 
I  always  rather  resent  the  fact  that  Rhoda 
did  not  bequeath  the  Leather-Works  to  him, 
when  I  thin  t  of  the  vast  and  almost  sacred 
pleasure  he  would  have  had  in  them ;  as  well 
as  when  I  remember  the  share  he  had  in  the 
preparations  for  their  manufacture.   And  the 
Leather -Works  speak  still  another  lesson, 
as  do  many  of  the  household  grotesqueries 
seen  in  New  Eng^nd,  a  lesson  of  sympathy, 
almost  of  beauty,  to  those  who  "  read 
between  th?  lines,  the  finer 
grace  of  unfulfilled 
designs." 


r 


CHAPTER  X. 

DAUGHTERS    OF    LIBERTY. 

\  T  7E  are  constantly  hearing  «;he  statement 
VV  reiterated,  that  the  Society  of  the 
Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution  was 
the  first  association  of  worsen  ever  formed 
for  patriotic  purpose.  This  assertion  shows 
a  lamentable  ignorance  of/Revolutionary  his- 
tory ;  for  a  century  and  a  quarter  ago,  be- 
fore the  War  of  the  Revolution,  patriotic 
societies  of  women  were  formed  all  over  the 
country,  and  called  Daughters  of  Liberty. 
Our  modern  bands  should  be  distinguished 
by  being  called  the  first  patriotic-hereditary 
societies  of  women. 

As  we  approach  Revolutionary  days,  it  is 
evident  that  the  women  of  all  the  colonies 
were  as  deeply  stirred  as  were  the  men  at 
the  constant  injustice  and  growing  tyranny 
of  the  British  government,  and  they  were 
not  slow  in  openly  averring  their  abhorrence 
and  revolt  against  this  injustice.  Their  in- 
dividual 


DAUGHTERS  OF  LIBERTY.  241 

dividual  action  consisted  in  the  wearing  only 
of  garments  of  homespun  manufacture ;  their 
concerted  exertions  in  gathering  in  patriotic 
bands  to  spin,  and  the  signing  of  compacts 
to  drink  no  more  of  the  taxed  tea,  that  sig- 
nificant emblem  of  British  injustice  and 
American  revolt. 

The  earliest  definite  notice  of  any  gather- 
ing of  Daughters  of  Liberty  was  in  Provi- 
dence in  1766,  when  seventeen  young  ladies 
met  at  the  house  of  Deacon  Ephraim  Bowen 
and  spun  all  day  long  for  the  public  benefit, 
and  assumed  the  name  Daughters  of  Lib- 
erty. The  next  meeting  the  little  band  had 
so  increased  in  numbers  that  it  had  to  meet 
in  the  Court  House.  At  about  the  same 
time  another  band  of  daughters  gathered  at 
Newport,  and  an  old  list  of  the  members  has 
been  preserved.  It  comprised  all  the  beauti- 
ful and  brilliant  young  girls  for  which  New- 
port was  at  that  time  so  celebrated.  As  one 
result  of  this  patriotic  interest,  the  President 
and  the  first  graduating  class  of  Brown  Uni- 
versity, then  called  Rhode  Island  College, 
were  clothed,  at  Commencement  in  1769,  in 
fabrics  of  American  homespun  manufacture. 

The 


242     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

The   senior  class   of  the  previous  year  at 
Harvard  had  been  similarly  dressed. 

These  little  bands  of  patriotic  women 
gathered  far  and  wide  throughout  New  Eng- 
land. At  one  meeting  seventy  linen  wheels 
were  employed.  In  Newbury,  Beverly,  Row- 
ley, Ipswich,  spinning  matches  were  held. 
Let  me  show  how  the  day  was  spent.  I 
quote  from  the  Boston  News-Letter:  — 

Rowley.  A  number  of  thirty-three  respectable 
ladies  of  the  town  met  at  sunrise  [this  was  in 
July]  with  their  wheels  to  spend  the  day  at  the 
house  of  the  Rev'd  Jedidiah  Jewell  in  the  lauda- 
ble design  of  a  spinning  match.  At  an  hour  be- 
fore sunset,  the  ladies  then  appearing  neatly 
dressed,  principally  in  homespun,  a  polite  and 
generous  repast  of  American  production  was  set 
for  their  entertainment,  after  which  being  pres- 
ent many  spectators  of  both  sexes,  Mr.  Jewell 
delivered  a  profitable  discourse  from  Romans 
xii.  2  :  Not  slothful  in  business,  fervent  in  spirit, 
serving  the  Lord. 

You  will  never  find  matters  of  church  and 
patriotism  very  far  apart  in  New  England ; 
so  I  learn  that  when  they  met  in  Ipswich 
the  Daughters  of  Liberty  were  also  enter- 
tained with  a  sermon.  The  Newbury  patri- 
ots 


DAUGHTERS  OF  LIBERTY.  243 

ots  drank  Liberty  Tea,  and  listened  to  a 
sermon  on  the  text  Proverbs  xxxi.  19.  An- 
other text  used  at  one  of  these  gatherings 
was  from  Exodus  xxxv.  25:  "And  all  the 
women  that  were  wise-hearted  did  spin  with 
their  hands." 

The  women  of  Virginia  were  early  in  the 
patriotic  impulses,  yet  few  proofs  of  their 
action  or  determination  remain.  In  a  North- 
ern paper,  the  Boston  Evening  Post  of  Jan- 
uary 31,  1770,  we  read  this  Toast  to  the 
Southerners :  — 

NEW  TOASTS. 

The  patriotic  ladies  of  Virginia,  who  have 
nobly  distinguished  themselves  by  appearing  in 
the  Manufactures  of  America,  and  may  those  of 
the  Massachusetts  be  laudably  ambitious  of  not 
being  outdone  by  Virginians. 

The  wise  and  virtuous  part  of  the  Fair  Sex  in 
Boston  and  other  Towns,  who  being  at  length 
sensible  that  by  the  consumption  of  Teas  they 
are  supporting  the  Commissioners  &  other  Tools 
of  Power,  have  voluntarily  agreed  not  to  give  or 
receive  any  further  Entertainments  of  that  Kind, 
until  those  Creatures,  together  with  the  Boston 
Standing  Army,  are  removed,  and  the  Revenue 
Acts  repealed. 

May 


244     COLONIAL   DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

May  the  disgrace  which  a  late  venal  &  cor- 
rupt Assembly  has  brought  upon  a  Sister  Colony, 
be  wiped  away  by  a  Dissolution. 

This  is  pretty  plain  language,  but  it  could 
not  be  strange  to  the  public  ear,  for  ere  this 
Boston  women  had  been  appealed  to  in  the 
press  upon  this  same  subject 

In  the  Massachusetts  Gazette,  as  early  as 
November  9,  1767,  these  lines  show  the  in- 
dignant and  revolutionary  spirit  of  the  time  : 

Young  ladies  in  town  and  those  that  live  round 

Let  a  friend  at  this  season  advise  you. 
Since  money  's  so  scarce  and  times  growing  worse, 

Strange  things  may  soon  hap  and  surprise  you. 
First  then  throw  aside  your  high  top  knots  of  pride 

Wear  none  but  your  own  country  linen. 
Of  economy  boast.     Let  your  pride  be  the  most 

To  show  cloaths  of  your  own  make  and  spinning. 
What  if  homespun  they  say  is  not  quite  so  gay 

As  brocades,  yet  be  not  in  a  passion, 
For  when  once  it  is  known  this  is  much  wore  in  town, 

One  and  all  will  cry  out  T  is  the  fashion. 
And  as  one  and  all  agree  that  you  11  not  married  be 

To  such  as  will  wear  London  factory 
But  at  first  sight  refuse,  till  e'en  such  you  do  choose 

As  encourage  our  own  manufactory. 

Soon  these  frequent  appeals,  and  the  in- 
fluence of  the  public  and  earnest  revolt  of 
the  Sons  of  Liberty,  resulted  in  a  public 

compact 


DAUGHTERS  OF  LIBERTY,  24$ 

compact  of  Boston  women.     It  is  thus  re- 
corded in  the  Boston  press  :  — 

The  Boston  Evening  Post :  — 

Monday,  February  12,  1770. 

The  following  agreement  has  lately  been  come 
into  by  upwards  of  300  Mistresses  of  Families  in 
this  Town  ;  in  which  Number  the  Ladies  of  the 
highest  rank  and  Influence,  that  could  be  waited 
upon  in  so  short  a  Time,  are  included. 

BOSTON,  January  31,  1770. 

At  a  time  when  our  invaluable  Rights  and 
Privileges  are  attacked  in  an  unconstitutional 
and  most  alarming  Manner,  and  as  we  find  we 
are  reproached  for  not  being  so  ready  as  could 
be  desired,  to  lend  our  Assistance,  we  think  it 
our  Duty  perfectly  to  concur  with  the  true 
Friends  of  Liberty  in  all  Measures  they  have 
taken  to  save  this  abused  Country  from  Ruin 
and  Slavery.  And  particularly,  we  join  with  the 
very  respectable  Body  of  Merchants  and  other 
Inhabitants  of  this  Town,  who  met  in  Faneuil 
Hall  the  23d  of  this  Instant,  in  their  Resolutions, 
totally  to  abstain  from  the  Use  of  Tea  ;  And  as 
the  greatest  Part  of  the  Revenue  arising  by  Vir- 
tue of  the  late  Acts,  is  produced  from  the  Duty 
paid  upon  Tea,  which  Revenue  is  wholly  ex- 
pended to  support  the  American  Board  of  Com- 
missioners ; 


246     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

missioners ;  We,  the  Subscribers,  do  strictly  en- 
gage, that  we  will  totally  abstain  from  the  Use  of 
that  Article,  (Sickness  excepted)  not  only  in  our 
respective  Families,  but  that  we  will  absolutely 
refuse  it,  if  it  should  be  offered  to  us  upon  any 
Occasion  whatsoever.  This  Agreement  we  cheer- 
fully come  into,  as  we  believe  the  very  distressed 
Situation  of  our  Country  requires  it,  and  we  do 
hereby  oblige  ourselves  religiously  to  observe  it, 
till  the  late  Revenue  Acts  are  repealed. 

Massachusetts     Gazette,   and    the    Boston 

Weekly  News-Letter:  — 

February  15,  1770. 

We  hear  that  a  large  Number  of  the  Mistresses 
of  Families,  some  of  whom  are  Ladies  of  the 
highest  Rank,  in  this  Town,  have  signed  an 
Agreement  against  drinking  Tea  (Bohea  it  is 
supposed,  tho'  not  specified) ;  they  engage  not 
only  to  abstain  from  it  in  their  Families  (Sick- 
ness excepted)  but  will  absolutely  refuse  it,  if  it 
should  be  offered  to  them  upon  any  Occasion ; 
This  Agreement  to  be  religiously  observed  till 
the  Revenue  Acts  are  repealed. 

It  was  natural  that,  in  that  hotbed  of  re- 
bellion, young  girls  should  not  be  behind 
their  brothers,  fathers,  and  their  mothers  in 
open  avowal  of  their  revolt.  Soon  the  young 
ladies  published  this  declaration  :  — 

We, 


DAUGHTERS  OF  LIBERTY.  247 

We,  the  daughters  of  those  patriots  who  have 
and  do  now  appear  for  the  public  interest,  and 
in  that  principally  regard  their  posterity  —  as 
such,  do  with  pleasure  engage  with  them  in  deny- 
ing ourselves  the  drinking  of  foreign  tea  in  hopes 
to  frustrate  a  plan  which  tends  to  deprive  the 
whole  community  of  all  that  is  valuable  as  life. 

One  dame  thus  declared  her  principles  and 
motives  in  blank  verse  :  — 

Farewell  the  teaboard  with  its  gaudy  equipage 

Of  cups  and  saucers,  creambucket,  sugar  tongs, 

The  pretty  tea-chest,  also  lately  stored 

With  Hyson,  Congo  and  best  double-fine. 

Full  many  a  joyous  moment  have  I  sat  by  ye 

Hearing  the  girls  tattle,  the  old  maids  talk  scandal, 

And  the  spruce  coxcomb  laugh  at  —  maybe  —  nothing. 

Though  now  detestable 

Because  I  am  taught  (and  I  believe  it  true) 

Its  use  will  fasten  slavish  chains  upon  my  country 

To  reign  triumphant  in  America. 

When  little  Anna  Green  Winslow  bought 
a  hat  in  February,  1771,  she  bought  one  of 
"  white  holland  with  the  feathers  sewed  on 
in  a  most  curious  manner,  white  and  unsul- 
leyed  as  the  falling  snow.  As  I  am  as  we 
say  a  daughter  of  Liberty  I  chuse  to  wear 
as  much  of  our  own  manufactory  as  posi- 
ble." 

Mercy 


248     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

Mercy  Warren  wrote  to  John  Winthrop,  in 
fine  satire  upon  this  determination  of  Amer- 
ican women  to  give  up  all  imports  from  Great 
Britain  except  the  necessaries  of  life,  a  list 
of  the  articles  a  woman  would  deem  it  im- 
perative to  retain :  — 

An  inventory  clear 
Of  all  she  needs  Lamira  offers  here. 
Nor  does  she  fear  a  rigid  Catos  frown 
When  she  lays  by  the  rich  embroidered  gown 
And  modestly  compounds  for  just  enough  — 
Perhaps  some  dozen  of  more  slighty  stuff. 
With  lawns  and  lutestrings,  blond  and  mecklin  laces, 
Fringes  and  jewels,  fans  and  tweezer  cases, 
Gay  cloaks  and  hats  of  every  shape  and  size, 
Scrafs,  cardinals  and  ribbons  of  all  dyes. 
With  ruffles  stamped,  and  aprons  of  tambour, 
Tippets  and  handkerchiefs  at  least  three  score ; 
With  finest  muslins  that  far  India  boasts, 
And  the  choice  herbage  from  Chinesan  coast. 
(But  while  the  fragrant  hyson  leaf  regales 
Who  '11  wear  the  home-spun  produce  of  the  vales  ? 
For  if  't  would  save  the  nation  from  the  curse 
Of  standing  troops  —  or  name  a  plague  still  worse, 
Few  can  this  choice  delicious  draught  give  up, 
Though  all  Medea's  poison  fill  the  cup.) 
Add  feathers,  furs,  rich  satins  and  ducapes 
And  head  dresses  in  pyramidal  shapes, 
Sideboards  of  plate  and  porcelain  profuse, 
With  fifty  dittos  that  the  ladies  use. 
So  weak  Lamira  and  her  wants  are  few, 
Who  can  refuse,  they  're  but  the  sex 's  due. 

In 


DAUGHTERS  OF  LIBERTY.  249 

In  youth  indeed  an  antiquated  page 
Taught  us  the  threatening  of  a  Hebrew  page 
Gainst  wimples,  mantles,  curls  and  crisping  pins, 
But  rank  not  these  among  our  modern  sins, 
For  when  our  manners  are  well  understood 
What  in  the  scale  is  stomacher  or  hood  ? 
Tis  true  we  love  the  courtly  mien  and  air 
The  pride  of  dress  and  all  the  debonair, 
Yet  Clara  quits  the  more  dressed  neglige 
And  substitutes  the  careless  polanS 
Until  some  fair  one  from  Britannia's  court 
Some  jaunty  dress  or  newer  taste  import, 
This  sweet  temptation  could  not  be  withstood, 
Though  for  her  purchase  paid  her  father's  blood. 

After  the  war  had  really  begun,  Mrs.  John 
Adams,  writing  July  31,  1777,  tells  of  an 
astonishing  action  of  Boston  women,  plainly 
the  result  of  all  these  revolutionary  tea- 
notions  :  — 

There  is  a  great  scarcity  of  sugar  and  coffee, 
articles  which  the  female  part  of  the  State  is  very 
loath  to  give  up,  especially  whilst  they  consider 
the  scarcity  occasioned  by  the  merchants  having 
secreted  a  large  quantity.  There  had  been  much 
rout  and  noise  in  the  town  for  several  weeks. 
Some  stores  had  been  opened  by  a  number  of 
people,  and  the  coffee  and  sugar  carried  into  the 
market  and  dealt  out  by  pounds.  It  was  rumored 
that  an  eminent  stingy  wealthy  merchant  (who  is 
a  bachelor)  had  a  hogshead  of  coffee  in  his  store 

which 


2$0     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

which  he  refused  to  sell  the  committee  under  six 
shillings  per  pound.  A  number  of  females,  some 
say  a  hundred,  some  say  more,  assembled  with  a 
cart  and  trunks,  marched  down  to  the  warehouse 
and  demanded  the  keys  which  he  refused  to  de- 
liver. Upon  which  one  of  them  seized  him  by 
his  neck  and  tossed  him  into  the  cart.  Upon 
his  finding  no  quarter,  he  delivered  the  keys 
when  they  tipped  up  the  cart  and  discharged 
him ;  then  opened  the  warehouse,  hoisted  out 
the  coffee  themselves,  put  into  the  trunks,  and 
drove  off.  It  was  reported  that  he  had  personal 
chastisements  among  them,  but  this  I  believe 
was  not  true.  A  large  concourse  of  men  stood 
amazed,  silent  spectators  of  the  whole  trans- 
action. 

I  suppose  these  Boston  dames  thought 
they  might  have  coffee  since  they  could  not 
have  tea ;  and,  indeed,  the  relative  use  of 
these  two  articles  in  America  was  much 
changed  by  the  Revolution.  To  this  day 
much  more  coffee  is  drunk  in  America,  pro- 
portionately, than  in  England.  We  are  not 
a  tea-drinking  nation. 

I  don't  know  that  there  were  Daughters 
of  Liberty  in  Philadelphia,  but  Philadelphia 
women  were  just  as  patriotic  as  those  of  other 

towns. 


DAUGHTERS  OF  LIBERTY.  2$l 

towns.    One  wrote  to  a  British  officer  as 
follows :  — 

I  have  retrenched  every  superfluous  expense 
in  my  table  and  family.  Tea  I  have  not  drunk 
since  last  Christmas,  nor  have  I  bought  a  cap  or 
gown  since  your  defeat  at  Lexington.  I  have 
learned  to  knit  and  am  now  making  stockings 
of  wool  for  my  servants.  In  this  way  do  I  now 
throw  in  my  mite  for  public  good.  I  know  this, 
that  as  free  I  can  die  but  once,  but  as  a  slave  I 
shall  not  be  worthy  of  life.  I  have  the  pleasure 
to  assure  you  that  these  are  the  sentiments  of  my 
sister  Americans. 

The  women  of  the  South  were  fired  with 
patriotism ;  in  Mecklenburgh  and  Rowan 
counties,  North  Carolina,  Daughters  of  Lib- 
erty found  another  method  of  spurring  pa- 
triotism. Young  ladies  of  the  most  respect- 
able families  banded  together,  and  pledged 
themselves  not  to  receive  addresses  from  any 
recreant  suitors  who  had  not  obeyed  the  coun- 
try's call  for  military  service. 

There  was  an  historic  tea-party  also  in  that 
town  of  so  much  importance  in  those  days  — 
Edenton,  N.  C.  On  October  25,  1774,  fifty- 
one  spirited  dames  assembled  at  the  resi- 
dence of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  King,  and  passed 

resolutions 


252     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

resolutions  commending  the  action  of  the 
Provincial  Congress,  and  declared  also  that 
they  would  not  conform  to  "  that  Pernicious 
Custom  of  Drinking  Tea  or  that  the  afore- 
said Ladys  would  not  promote  ye  wear  of  any 
manufacture  from  England,"  until  the  tax 
was  repealed. 

The  notice  of  the  association  is  contained 
in  the  American  Archives,  and  runs  thus  :  — 

Association  Signed  by  Ladies  of  Edenton, 
North  Carolina,  Oct.  25, 1774.  As  we  cannot  be 
indifferent  on  any  occasion  that  appears  to  affect 
the  peace  and  happiness  of  our  country,  and  as 
it  has  been  thought  necessary  for  the  publick 
good  to  enter  into  several  particular  resolves,  by 
meeting  of  Members  of  Deputies  from  the  whole 
Province,  it  is  a  duty  that  we  owe  not  only  to  our 
near  and  dear  relations  and  connections,  but  to 
ourselves  who  are  essentially  interested  in  their 
welfare,  to  do  everything  as  far  as  lies  in  our 
power  to  testify  our  sincere  adherence  to  the 
same,  and  we  do  therefore  accordingly  subscribe 
this  paper  as  a  witness  of  our  fixed  intentions  and 
solemn  determination  to  do  so.  Signed  by  fifty 
one  ladies. 

It  is  a  good  example  of  the  strange  notions 
which  some  historians  have  of  the  slight 

value 


DAUGHTERS  OF  LIBERTY.  253 

value  of  circumstantial  evidence  in  history, 
that  the  names  of  these  fifty-one  ladies  have 
not  been  preserved.  A  few,  however,  are 
known.  The  president  was  Mrs.  Penelope 
Barker,  who  was  thrice  a  widow,  of  husbands 
Hodgson,  Crumm,  and  Barker.  She  was 
high-spirited,  and  from  her  varied  matri- 
monial experiences  knew  that  it  was  need- 
less to  be  afraid  of  any  man  ;  so  when  British 
soldiers  invaded  her  stables  to  seize  her  car- 
riage horses,  she  snatched  the  sword  of  one 
of  her  husbands  from  the  wall,  with  a  single 
blow  severed  the  reins  in  the  British  officer's 
hands,  and  drove  her  horses  back  into  the 
stables,  and  kept  them  too. 

The  fame  of  this  Southern  tea-party 
reached  England,  for  Arthur  Iredell  wrote 
(with  the  usual  masculine  jocularity  upon 
feminine  enterprises)  thus,  on  January  31, 
1775,  from  London  to  his  patriot  brother, 
James  Iredell :  — 

I  see  by  the  newspapers  the  Edenton  ladies 
have  signalized  themselves  by  their  protest 
against  tea-drinking.  The  name  of  Johnston  I 
see  among  others ;  are  any  of  my  sister's  rela- 
tions patriotic  heroines  ?  Is  there  a  female  Con- 
gress at  Edenton  too  ?  I  hope  not,  for  we  Eng- 
lishmen 


254     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

lishmen  are  afraid  of  the  male  Congress,  but  if 
the  ladies  who  have  ever,  since  the  Amazonian 
era,  been  esteemed  the  most  formidable  enemies, 
if  they,  I  say,  should  attack  us,  the  most  fatal 
consequence  is  to  be  dreaded.  So  dextrous  in 
the  handling  of  a  dart,  each  wound  they  give  is 
mortal ;  whilst  we,  so  unhappily  formed  by  Na- 
ture, the  more  we  strive  to  conquer  them  the  more 
are  conquered  !  The  Edenton  ladies,  conscious 
I  suppose  of  this  superiority  on  their  side,  by 
former  experience,  are  willing,  I  imagine,  to  crush 
us  into  atoms  by  their  omnipotency ;  the  only 
security  on  our  side  to  prevent  the  impending 
ruin  that  I  can  perceive  is  the  probability  that 
there  are  few  places  in  America  which  possess 
so  much  female  artillery  as  in  Edenton. 

Another  indication  of  the  fame  of  the 
Edenton  tea-party  is  adduced  by  Dr.  Richard 
Dillard  in  his  interesting  magazine  paper 
thereon.  It  was  rendered  more  public  by  a 
caricature,  printed  in  London,  a  mezzotint, 
entitled  "A  Society  of  Patriotic  Ladies  at 
Edenton  in  North  Carolina."  One  lady  with 
a  gavel  is  evidently  a  man  in  woman's  cloth- 
ing, and  is  probably  intended  for  the  hated 
Lord  North  ;  other  figures  are  pouring  the 
tea  out  of  caddies,  others  are  writing.  This 

caricature 


DAUGHTERS  OF  LIBERTY.  2$$ 

caricature  may  have  been  brought  forth  in 
derision  of  an  interesting  tea-party  picture 
which  still  exists,  and  is  in  North  Carolina, 
after  some  strange  vicissitudes  in  a  foreign 
land.  It  is  painted  on  glass,  and  the  various 
figures  are  doubtless  portraits  of  the  Eden- 
ton  ladies. 

It  is  difficult  to-day  to  be  wholly  sensi-\jx 
ble  of  all  that  these  Liberty  Bands  meant 
to  the  women  of  the  day.  There  were  not, 
at  that  time,  the  associations  of  women  for 
concerted  charitable  and  philanthropic  work 
which  are  so  universal  now.  •  There  were 
few  established  and  organized  assemblies  of 
women  for  church  work  (there  had  been  some 
praying-meetings  in  Whitefield's  day),  and 
the  very  thought  of  a  woman's  society  for 
any  other  than  religious  purposes  must  have 
been  in  itself  revolutionary.  And  we  scarcely 
appreciate  all  it  meant  for  them  to  abandon 
the  use  of  tea ;  for  tea-drinking  in  that  day 
meant  far  more  to  women  than  it  does  now. 
Substitutes  for  the  taxed  and  abandoned  ex- 
5  otic  herb  were  eagerly  sought  and  speedily 
offered.  Liberty  Tea,  Labrador  Tea,  and 
Yeopon  were  the  most  universally  accepted, 
though  seventeen  different  herbs  and  beans 

were 


2$6     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

were  named  by  one  author ;  and  patriotic 
prophecies  were  made  that  their  use  would 
wholly  outlive  that  of  the  Oriental  drink, 
even  could  the  latter  be  freely  obtained. 
A  century  has  proved  the  value  of  these 
prophecies. 

Liberty  Tea  was  the  most  popular  of  these 
Revolutionary  substitutes.  It  sold  for  six- 
pence a  pound.  It  was  made  from  the  four- 
leaved  loose-strife,  a  common-growing  herb. 
It  was  pulled  up  whole  like  flax,  its  stalks 
were  stripped  of  the  leaves  and  then  boiled. 
The  leaves  were  put  in  a  kettle  with  the 
liquor  from  the  stalks  and  again  boiled. 
Then  the  leaves  were  dried  in  an  oven. 
Sage  and  rib -wort,  strawberry  leaves  and 
currant  leaves,  made  a  shift  to  serve  as  tea. 
Hyperion  or  Labrador  Tea,  much  vaunted, 
was  only  raspberry  leaves,  but  was  not  such 
a  wholly  odious  beverage.  It  was  loudly 
praised  in  the  patriotic  public  press  :  — 

The  use  of  Hyperion  or  Labrador  tea  is  every 
day  coming  into  vogue  among  people  of  all  ranks. 
The  virtues  of  the  plant  or  shrub  from  which 
this  delicate  Tea  is  gathered  were  first  discovered 
by  the  Aborigines,  and  from  them  the  Canadians 
learned  them.  Before  the  cession  of  Canada  to 

Great 


DAUGHTERS  OF  LIBERTY.  2tf 

Great  Britain  we  knew  little  or  nothing  of  this 

most  excellent  herb,  but  since  we  have  been 

taught  to  find  it  growing  all  over  hill  and  dale 

between  the  Lat.  40  and  60.     It  is  found  all  over 

New  England  in   great  plenty  and  that 

of  best  quality,  particularly  on  the 

banks  of  the  Penobscot,  Ken- 

nebec,   Nichewannock    and 

Merrimac. 


CHAPTER  XL 

A    REVOLUTIONARY    HOUSEWIFE. 

T  T  7E  do  not  need  to  make  a  composite 
V  V  picture  of  the  housewife  of  Revolu- 
tionary days,  for  a  very  distinct  account  has 
been  preserved  of  one  in  the  quaint  pages  of 
the  Remembrancer  or  diary  of  Christopher 
Marshall,  a  well-to-do  Quaker  of  Philadel- 
phia, who  was  one  of  the  Committee  of  Ob- 
servation of  that  city  during  the  Revolution- 
ary War.  After  many  entries  through  the 
year  1 778,  which  incidentally  show  the  many 
cares  of  his  faithful  wife,  and  her  fulfilment 
of  these  cares,  the  fortunate  husband  thus 
bursts  forth  in  her  praise  :  — 

As  I  have  in  this  memorandum  taken  scarcely 
any  notice  of  my  wife's  employments,  it  might 
appear  as  if  her  engagements  were  very  trifling  ; 
the  which  is  not  the  case  but  the  reverse.  And 
to  do  her  justice  which  her  services  deserved,  by 
entering  them  minutely,  would  take  up  most  of 
my  time,  for  this  genuine  reason,  how  that  from 

early 


A  REVOLUTIONARY  HOUSEWIFE.     259 

early  in  the  morning  till  late  at  night  she  is  con- 
stantly employed  in  the  affairs  of  the  family, 
which  for  four  months  has  been  very  large  ;  for 
besides  the  addition  to  our  family  in  the  house, 
it  is  a  constant  resort  of  comers  and  goers  which 
seldom  go  away  with  dry  lips  and  hungry  bellies. 
This  calls  for  her  constant  attendance,  not  only 
to  provide,  but  also  to  attend  at  getting  prepared 
in  the  kitchen,  baking  our  bread  and  pies,  meat 
&c.  and  also  the  table.  Her  cleanliness  about 
the  house,  her  attendance  in  the  orchard,  cutting 
and  drying  apples  of  which  several  bushels  have 
been  procured ;  add  to  which  her  making  of 
cider  without  tools,  for  the  constant  drink  of  the 
family,  her  seeing  all  our  washing  done,  and  her 
fine  clothes  and  my  shirts,  the  which  are  all 
smoothed  by  her;  add  to  this,  her  making  of 
twenty  large  cheeses,  and  that  from  one  cow, 
and  daily  using  with  milk  and  cream,  besides 
her  sewing,  knitting  &c.  Thus  she  looketh  well 
to  the  ways  of  her  household,  and  eateth  not  the 
bread  of  idleness ;  yea  she  also  stretcheth  out 
her  hand,  and  she  reacheth  forth  her  hand  to 
her  needy  friends  and  neighbors.  I  think  she 
has  not  been  above  four  times  since  her  resi- 
dence here  to  visit  her  neighbors ;  nor  through 
mercy  has  she  been  sick  for  any  time,  but  has  at 
all  times  been  ready  in  any  affliction  to  me  or  my 

family 


26O     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

family  as   a  faithful  nurse   and  attendant  both 
day  and  night. 

Such  laudatory  references  to  the  goodwife 
as  these  abound  through  the  Remembrancer. 

My  tender  wife  keeps  busily  engaged  and 
looks  upon  every  Philadelphian  who  comes  to 
us  as  a  person  suffering  in  a  righteous  cause  ; 
and  entitled  to  partake  of  her  hospitality  which 
she  administers  with  her  labor  and  attendance 
with  great  freedom  and  alacrity.  .  .  . 

My  dear  wife  meets  little  respite  all  the  day, 
the  proverb  being  verified,  that  Woman's  Work 
is  never  done. 

I  owe  my  health  to  the  vigilance,  industry  and 
care  of  my  wife  who  really  has  been  and  is  a 
blessing  unto  me.  For  the  constant  assiduity 
and  press  of  her  daily  and  painful  labor  in  the 
kitchen,  the  Great  Lord  of  the  Household  will 
reward  her  in  due  time. 

It  seems  that  so  generous  and  noble  a  wo- 
man should  have  had  a  reward  in  this  world, 
as  well  as  the  next,  for,  besides  her  kitchen 
duties,  she  was  a  "  nonsuch  gardner,  working 
bravely  in  her  garden,"  and  a  first  class 
butter-maker,  who  constantly  supplied  her 
poor  neighbors  with  milk,  and  yet  always 
had  cream  to  spare  for  her  dairy. 

Far 


A  REVOLUTIONARY  HOUSEWIFE.    26 1 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  cast  even  the  slight- 
est reflection,  to  express  the  vaguest  doubt, 
as  to  the  industry,  energy,  and  application  of 
so  pious,  so  estimable  an  old  gentleman  as 
Mr.  Marshall,  but  he  was,  as  he  says,  "  easily 
tired "  —  "  the  little  I  do  tires  and  fatigues 
me"  —  "the  grasshopper  seems  a  burden." 
So,  even  to  our  prosaic  and  somewhat  eman- 
cipated nineteenth  century  notions  as  to 
women's  rights  and  their  assumption  of 
men's  duties,  it  does  appear  that  so  patient, 
industrious,  and  overworked  a  consort  might 
have  been  spared  some  of  the  burdensome 
duties  which  devolved  upon  her,  and  which 
are  popularly  supposed  not  to  belong  to  the 
distaff  side  of  the  house.  An  elderly  milk- 
man might  have  occasionally  milked  the 
cow  for  that  elderly  weary  milkmaid.  And 
it  does  seem  just  a  little  strange  that  a 
hearty  old  fellow,  who  could  eat  gammons 
and  drink  punch  at  every  occasion  of  sober 
enjoyment  and  innocent  revelry  to  which  he 
was  invited,  should  let  his  aged  spouse  rise 
at  daybreak  and  go  to  the  wharves  to  buy 
loads  of  wood  from  the  bargemen  ;  and  also 
complacently  record  that  the  horse  would 
have  died  had  not  the  ever-energetic  wife 

gone 


262    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

gone  out  and  by  dint  of  hard  work  and  good 
management  succeeded  in  buying  in  the 
barren  city  a  load  of  hay  for  provender. 
However,  he  never  fails  to  do  her  justice  in 
commendatory  words  in  the  pages  of  his 
Remembrancer,  thus  proving  himself  more 
thoughtful  than  that  Yankee  husband  who 
said  to  a  neighbor  that  his  wife  was  such  a 
good  worker  and  a  good  cook,  and  so  pleas- 
ant and  kept  everything  so  neat  and  nice 
around  the  house,  that  sometimes  it  seemed 
as  if  he  could  n't  help  telling  her  so. 

One  of  the  important  housewifely  cares  of 
Philadelphia  women  was  their  marketing, 
and  Madam  Marshall  was  faithful  in  this 
duty  also.  We  find  her  attending  market  as 
early  as  four  o'clock  upon  a  winter's  morning. 
In  1690,  there  were  two  market  days  weekly 
in  Philadelphia,  and  nearly  all  the  early  writ- 
ers note  the  attendance  thereat  of  the  ladies 
residing  in  the  town.  In  1744,  these  markets 
were  held  on  Tuesday  and  Friday.  William 
Black,  a  travelling  Virginian,  wrote  that  year 
with  admiration  of  this  custom  :  — 

I  got  to  the  market  by  7,  and  had  no  small 
Satisfaction  in  seeing  the  pretty  Creatures,  the 

Young 


A   REVOLUTIONARY  HOUSEWIFE.    263 

Young  Ladies,  traversing  the  place  from  Stall  to 
Stall  where  they  could  make  the  best  Market, 
some  with  their  maid  behind  them  with  a  Basket 
to  carry  home  the  Purchase,  others  that  were 
design'd  to  buy  but  trifles,  as  a  little  fresh  But- 
ter, a  Dish  of  Green  Peas  or  the  like,  had  Good 
Nature  &  Humility  enough  to  be  their  own  Por- 
ters. I  have  so  much  regard  for  the  fair  Sex 
that  I  imagin'd  like  the  Woman  of  the  Holy 
Writ  some  charm  in  touching  even  the  Hem  of 
their  Garments.  After  I  made  my  Market,  which 
was  one  pennyworth  of  Whey  and  a  Nosegay,  I 
disengag'd  myself. 

It  would  appear  also  that  a  simple  and 
appropriate  garment  was  donned  for  this 
homely  occupation.  We  find  Sarah  Eve  and 
others  writing  of  wearing  a  "market  cloke." 

It  is  with  a  keen  thrill  of  sympathy  that 
we  read  of  all  the  torment  that  Mistress 
Marshall,  that  household  saint,  had  to  endure 
in  the  domestic  service  rendered  to  her  — 
or  perhaps  I  should  say  through  the  lack  of 
service  in  her  home.  A  special  thorn  in  the 
flesh  was  one  Poll,  a  bound  girl.  On  Septem- 
ber 13,  1775,  Mr.  Marshall  wrote  :  — 

After  my  wife  came  from  market  (she  went  past 
5)  she  ordered  her  girl  Poll  to  carry  the  basket 

with 


264     COLONIAL   DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

with  some  necessaries  to  the  place,  as  she  was 
coming  after  her,  they  intending  to  iron  the 
clothes.  Poll  accordingly  went,  set  down  the 
basket,  came  back,  went  and  dressed  herself  all 
clean,  short  calico  gown,  and  said  she  was  going 
to  school ;  but  presently  after  the  negro  woman 
Dinah  came  to  look  for  her,  her  mistress  having 
mistrusted  she  had  a  mind  to  play  truant.  This 
was  about  nine,  but  madam  took  her  walk,  but 
where  —  she  is  not  come  back  to  tell. 

Sept.  1 6.  I  arose  before  six  as  I  was  much 
concern'd  to  see  my  wife  so  afflicted  as  before  on 
the  bad  conduct  of  her  girl  Poll  who  is  not  yet 
returned,  but  is  skulking  and  running  about  town. 
This  I  understand  was  the  practice  of  her  mother 
who  for  many  years  before  her  death  was  a  con- 
stant plague  to  my  wife,  and  who  left  her  this  girl 
as  a  legacy,  and  who  by  report  as  well  as  by  own 
knowledge,  for  almost  three  years  has  always 
been  so  down  to  this  time.  About  eight,  word 
was  brought  that  Poll  was  just  taken  by  Sister 
Lynn  near  the  market,  and  brought  to  their 
house.  A  messenger  was  immediately  dispatched 
for  her,  as  she  could  not  be  found  before,  though 
a  number  of  times  they  had  been  hunting  her. 

As  the  years  went  on,  Poll  kept  taking 
what  he  called  "cruises,"  "driving  strokes 
of  impudence,"  visiting  friends,  strolling 

around 


A  REVOLUTIONARY  HOUSEWIFE.    26$ 

around  the  streets,  faring  up  and  down  the 
country,  and  he  patiently  writes  :  — 

This  night  our  girl  was  brought  home.  I  sup- 
pose she  was  hunted  out,  as  it  is  called,  and 
found  by  Ruth  on  the  Passyunk  Road.  Her 
mistress  was  delighted  upon  her  return,  but  I 
know  of  nobody  else  in  house  or  out.  I  have 
nothing  to  say  in  the  affair,  as  I  know  of  nothing 
that  would  distress  my  wife  so  much  as  for  me  to 
refuse  or  forbid  her  being  taken  into  the  house. 

(A  short  time  after)  I  arose  by  four  as  my  wife 
had  been  up  sometime  at  work  cleaning  house, 
and  as  she  could  not  rest  on  account  of  Polls 
not  being  yet  return'd.  The  girls  frolics  always 
afflict  her  mistress,  so  that  to  me  its  plain  if  she 
does  not  mend,  or  her  mistress  grieve  less  for 
her,  that  it  will  shorten  Mrs  Marshalls  days  con- 
siderably ;  besides  our  house  wears  quite  a  dif- 
ferent face  when  Miss  Poll  is  in  it  (although  all 
the  good  she  does  is  not  worth  half  the  salt  she 
eats.)  As  her  presence  gives  pleasure  to  her 
mistress,  this  gives  joy  to  all  the  house,  so  that 
in  fact  she  is  the  cause  of  peace  or  uneasiness 
in  the  home. 

It  is  with  a  feeling  of  malicious  satisfaction 
that  we  read  at  last  of  the  jaded,  harassed, 
and  conscientious  wife  going  away  for  a 
visit,  and  know  that  the  man  of  the  house 

will 


266    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND  GOOD  WIVES. 

will  have  to  encounter  and  adjust  domestic 
problems  as  best  he  may.  No  sooner  had 
the  mistress  gone  than  Poll  promptly  de- 
parted also  on  a  vacation.  As  scores  of 
times  before,  Mr.  Marshall  searched  for  her, 
and  retrieved  her  (when  she  was  ready  to 
come),  and  she  behaved  exceeding  well  for  a 
day,  only,  when  rested,  to  again  make  a  flit- 
ting. He  writes  on  the  23d  :  — 

I  roused  Charles  up  at  daylight.  Found  Miss 
Poll  in  the  straw  house.  She  came  into  the 
kitchen  and  talked  away  that  she  could  not  go 
out  at  night  but  she  must  be  locked  out.  If  that 's 
the  case  she  told  them  she  would  pack  up  her 
clothes  and  go  quite  away ;  that  she  would  not  be 
so  served  as  her  Mistress  did  not  hinder  her  stay- 
ing out  when  she  pleased,  and  the  kitchen  door 
to  be  opened  for  her  when  she  came  home  and 
knocked.  The  negro  woman  told  me  as  well  as 
she  could  what  she  said.  I  then  went  and  picked 
up  her  clothes  that  I  could  find.  I  asked  her 
how  she  could  behave  so  to  me  when  I  had  con- 
ducted myself  so  easy  towards  her  even  so  as  to 
suffer  her  to  sit  at  table  and  eat  with  me.  This 
had  no  effect  upon  her.  She  rather  inclined  to 
think  that  she  had  not  offended  and  had  done 
nothing  but  what  her  mistress  indulged  her  in. 
I  told  her  before  Betty  that  it  was  not  worth  my 

while 


A  REVOLUTIONARY  HOUSEWIFE.    26} 

while  to  lick  her  though  she  really  deserved  it  for 
her  present  impudence ;  but  to  remember  I  had 
taken  all  her  clothes  I  could  find  except  what  she 
had  on,  which  I  intended  to  keep ;  that  if  she 
went  away  Charles  with  the  horse  should  follow 
her  and  bring  her  back  and  that  I  would  send 
a  bellman  around  the  borough  of  Lancaster  to 
cry  her  as  a  runaway  servant,  wicked  girl,  with 
a  reward  for  apprehending  her. 

The  fatuous  simplicity  of  Quaker  Mar- 
shall's reproofs,  the  futility  of  his  threats,  the 
absurd  failure  of  his  masculine  methods,  re- 
ceived immediate  illustration  —  as  might  be 
expected,  by  Miss  Poll  promptly  running 
away  that  very  night.  Again  he  writes  :  — 

Charles  arose  near  daybreak  and  I  soon  after, 
in  order  to  try  to  find  my  nightly  and  daily 
plague,  as  she  took  a  walk  again  last  night. 
Charles  found  her.  We  turned  her  upstairs  to 
refresh  herself  with  sleep.  .  .  . 

(Two  days  later)  After  breakfast  let  our  Poll 
downstairs  where  she  has  been  kept  since  her 
last  frolic.  Fastened  her  up  again  at  night.  I 
think  my  old  enemy  Satan  is  much  concerned  in 
the  conduct  and  behavior  of  that  unfortunate 
girl.  He  knows  her  actions  give  me  much  anx- 
iety and  indeed  at  times  raise  my  anger  so  I  have 

said 


268     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

said  what  should  have  been  avoided,  but  I  hope 
for  the  future  to  be  more  upon  my  guard  and 
thus  frustrate  him  in  his  attempts. 

With  what  joy  did  the  masculine  house- 
keeper and  steward  greet  the  return  of  his 
capable  wife,  and  resign  his  position  as  turn- 
key !  Poll,  upon  liberation  from  restraint, 
flew  swiftly  away  like  any  other  bird  from 
its  cage. 

Notwithstanding  such  heavy  weather  overhead 
and  exceeding  dirty  under  foot  our  Poll  after 
breakfast  went  to  see  the  soldiers  that  came  as 
prisoners  belonging  to  Burgoynes  army.  Our 
trull  returned  this  morning.  Her  mistress  gave 
her  a  good  sound  whipping.  This  latter  was  a 
variety. 

And  so  the  unequal  fight  went  on  ;  Poll 
calmly  breaking  down  a  portion  of  the  fence 
that  she  might  decamp  more  promptly,  and 
return  unheralded.  She  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  vicious,  but  simply  triumphantly 
lawless  and  fond  of  gadding.  I  cannot 
always  blame  her.  I  am  sure  I  should  have 
wanted  to  go  to  see  the  soldier-prisoners  of 
Burgoyne's  army  brought  into  town.  The 
last  glimpse  of  her  we  have  is  with  "her 
head  dressed  in  tiptop  fashion,"  rolling  off  in 

a 


A  REVOLUTIONARY  HOUSEWIFE.     269 

a  coach  to  Yorktown  with  Sam  Morris's  son, 
and  not  even  saying  good-by  to  her  van- 
quished master. 

Mr.  Marshall  was  not  the  only  Philadel- 
phian  to  be  thus  afflicted ;  we  find  one  of  his 
neighbors,  Jacob  Hiltzheimer,  dealing  a  more 
summary  way  with  a  refractory  maid-servant. 
Shortly  after  noting  in  the  pages  of  his  diary 
that  "  our  maid  Rosina  was  impertinent  to 
her  mistress,"  we  find  this  good  citizen  tak- 
ing the  saucy  young  redemptioner  before  the 
squire,  who  summarily  ordered  her  to  the 
workhouse.  After  remaining  a  month  in 
that  confinement,  Rosina  boldly  answered 
no,  when  asked  if  she  would  go  back  to  her 
master  and  behave  as  she  ought,  and  she 
was  promptly  remanded.  But  she  soon 
repented,  and  was  released.  Her  master 
paid  for  her  board  and  lodging  while  under 
detention,  and  quickly  sold  her  for  £20  for 
her  remaining  term  of  service. 

With  the  flight  of  the  Marshalls'  sorry 
Poll,  the  sorrows  and  trials  of  this  good 
Quaker  household  with  regard  to  what  Ra- 
leigh calls  "  domesticals  "  were  not  at  an  end. 
As  the  "  creatures  "  and  the  orchard  and  gar- 
den needed  such  constant  attention,  a  man- 
servant 


27O     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

servant  was  engaged  —  one  Antony  —  a 
character  worthy  of  Shakespeare's  comedies. 
Soon  we  find  the  master  writing  :  — 

I  arose  past  seven  and  had  our  gentleman  to 
call  down  stairs.  I  spoke  to  him  about  his  not 
serving  the  cows.  He  at  once  began  about  his 
way  being  all  right,  &c.  I  set  about  serving 
our  family  and  let  him,  as  in  common,  do  as  he 
pleases.  I  think  I  have  hired  a  plague  to  my 
spirit.  Yet  he  is  still  the  same  Antony  —  he 
says  —  complaisant,  careful,  cheerful,  indus- 
trious. 

Then  Antony  grew  noisy  and  talkative,  so 
abusive  at  last  that  he  had  to  be  put  out 
in  the  yard,  where  he  railed  and  talked  till 
midnight,  to  the  annoyance  of  the  neigh- 
bors and  the  mortification  of  his  mistress; 
for  he  protested  incessantly  and  noisily  that 
all  he  wished  was  to  leave  in  peace  and 
quiet,  which  he  was  not  permitted  to  do. 
Then,  and  repeatedly,  his  master  told  him 
to  leave,  but  the  servant  had  no  other  home, 
and  might  starve  in  the  war-desolated  town  ; 
so  after  half -promises  he  was  allowed  by 
these  tender  folk  to  stay  on.  Soon  he 
had  another  "  tantrum,"  and  the  astounded 
Quaker  writes :  — 

He 


A  REVOLUTIONARY  HOUSEWIFE.     2/1 

He  rages  terribly  uttering  the  most  out  of  the 
way  wicked  expressions  yet  not  down-right  swear- 
ing. Mamma  says  it  is  cursing  in  the  Popish 
way.  .  .  . 

What  this  Popish  swearing  could  have 
been  arouses  my  curiosity ;  I  suspect  it  was 
a  kind  of  "dog-latin."  Antony  constantly 
indulged  in  it,  to  the  horror  and  sorrow  of 
the  pious  Marshalls.  And  the  amusing,  the 
fairly  comic  side  of  all  this  is  that  Antony 
was  a  preacher,  a  prophet  in  the  land,  and 
constantly  held  forth  in  meeting  to  sinners 
around  him.  We  read  of  him  :  — 

Antony  went  to  Quakers  meeting  today  where 
he  preached ;  although  he  was  requested  to  de- 
sist, so  that  by  consent  they  broke  up  the  meet- 
ing sooner  than  they  would  have  done.  .  .  . 

Mamma  went  to  meeting  where  Antony  spoke 
and  was  forbid.  He  appeared  to  be  most  con- 
summately bold  and  ignorant  in  his  speaking 
there.  And  about  the  house  I  am  obliged  in  a 
stern  manner  at  times  to  order  him  not  to  say 
one  word  more.  .  .  . 

This  afternoon  Antony  preached  at  the  Eng- 
lish Presbyterian  meeting.  It  is  said  that  the 
hearers  laughed  at  him  but  he  was  highly  pleased 
with  himself. 

Antony 


2/2     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

Antony  preached  at  meeting.  I  kept  engaged 
helping  to  cook  the  pot  against  master  came 
home.  He  comes  and  goes  as  he  pleases. 

I  don't  know  when  to  pity  poor  Dame 
Marshall  the  most,  with  Antony  railing  in 
the  yard  and  disturbing  the  peace  of  the 
neighbors ;  or  Antony  cursing  in  a  Popish 
manner  through  the  house  ;  or  Antony  sham- 
ming sick  and  moaning  by  the  fireside ;  or 
Antony  violently  preaching  when  she  had 
gone  to  the  quiet  Quaker  meeting  for  an 
hour  of  peace  and  rest. 

This  "  runnagate  rascal "  was  as  elusive, 
as  tricky,  as  malicious  as  a  gnome ;  when- 
ever he  was  reproved,  he  always  contrived 
to  invent  a  new  method  of  annoyance  in 
revenge.  When  chidden  for  not  feeding  the 
horse,  he  at  once  stripped  the  leaves  off  the 
growing  cabbages,  cut  off  the  carrot  heads, 
and  pulled  up  the  potatoes,  and  pretended 
and  protested  he  did  it  all  solely  to  bene- 
fit them,  and  thus  do  good  to  his  master. 
When  asked  to  milk  the  cow,  he  promptly 
left  the  Marshall  domicile  for  a  whole  day. 

Sent  Antony  in  the  orchard  to  watch  the  boys. 
As  I  was  doubtful  sometime  whether  if  any  came 

for 


A  REVOLUTIONARY  HOUSEWIFE.     273 

for  apples  Antony  would  prevent,  I  took  a  walk 
to  the  back  fence,  made  a  noise  by  pounding  as 
if  I  would  break  the  fence,  with  other  noise. 
This  convinced  me  Antony  sat  in  his  chair.  He 
took  no  notice  till  my  wife  and  old  Rachel  came 
to  him,  roused  him,  and  scolded  him  for  his 
neglect.  His  answer  was  that  he  thought  it  his 
duty  to  be  still  and  not  disturb  them,  as  by  so 
doing  he  should  have  peace  in  heaven  and  a 
blessing  would  ever  attend  him. 

This  was  certainly  the  most  sanctimonious 
excuse  for  laziness  that  was  ever  invented  ; 
and  on  the  following  day  Antony  supple- 
mented his  tergiversation  by  giving  away  all 
Mr.  Marshall's  ripe  apples  through  the  fence 
to  passers-by  —  neighbors,  boys,  soldiers,  and 
prisoners.  There  may  have  been  method  in 
this  orchard  madness,  for  Antony  loathed 
apple-pie,  a  frequent  comestible  in  the  Mar- 
shall domicile,  and  often  refused  to  drink 
cider,  and  grumbling  made  toast-tea  instead. 
In  a  triumph  of  euphuistic  indignation,  Mr. 
Marshall  thus  records  the  dietetic  vagaries 
of  the  "  most  lazy  impertinent  talking  lying 
fellow  any  family  was  ever  troubled  with  :  " 

When  we  have  no  fresh  broth  he  wants  some ; 
when  we  have  it  he  cant  sup  it.     When  we  have 

lean 


2/4     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

lean  of  bacon  he  wants  the  fat ;  when  the  fat  he 
cant  eat  it  without  spreading  salt  over  it  as  with- 
out it  its  too  heavy  for  his  stomach.  If  new 
milk  he  cant  eat  it  till  its  sour,  it  curdles  on  his 
stomach  ;  when  sour  or  bonnyclabber  it  gives 
him  the  stomach-ache.  Give  him  tea  he  doesn't 
like  such  slop,  its  not  fit  for  working  men  ;  if  he 
hasn't  it  when  he  asks  for  it  he's  not  well  used. 
Give  him  apple  pie  above  once  for  some  days, 
its  not  suitable  for  him  it  makes  him  sick.  If 
the  negro  woman  makes  his  bed,  she  dont  make 
it  right ;  if  she  dont  make  it  she 's  a  lazy  black 
jade,  &c. 

In  revenge  upon  the  negro  woman  Dinah 
for  not  making  his  bed  to  suit  his  notion,  he 
pretended  to  have  had  a  dream  about  her, 
which  he  interpreted  to  such  telling  effect 
that  she  thought  Satan  was  on  his  swift  way 
to  secure  her,  and  fled  the  house  in  super- 
stitious fright,  in  petticoat  and  shift,  and 
was  captured  three  miles  out  of  town.  On 
her  return,  Antony  outdid  himself  with  "all 
the  vile  ribaldry,  papist  swearing,  incoherent 
scurrilous  language,  that  imperious  pride, 
vanity,  and  folly  could  invent  or  express  "  — 
and  then  went  off  to  meeting  to  preach  and 
pray.  Well  might  the  Quaker  say  with  Juve- 
nal, 


A  REVOLUTIONARY  HOUSEWIFE.    275 

nal,  "  The  tongue  is  the  worst  part  of  a  bad 
servant."  At  last,  exasperated  beyond  meas- 
ure, his  patient  master  vowed,  "Antony,  I 
will  give  thee  a  good  whipping,"  and  he  could 
do  it,  for  he  had  "pacified  himself  with  sundry 
stripes  of  the  cowskin  "  on  Dinah,  the  negro, 
when  she,  in  emulation  of  Antony,  was  im- 
pertinent to  her  mistress. 

The  threat  of  a  whipping  brought  on  An- 
tony a  "  fit  of  stillness "  which  descended 
like  a  blessing  on  the  exhausted  house.  But 
"  the  devil  is  sooner  raised  than  laid  ; "  anon 
Antony  was  in  his  old  lunes  again,  and  the 
peace  was  broken  by  a  fresh  outburst  of  lazi- 
ness, indifference,  and  abuse,  in  which  we 
must  leave  this  afflicted  household,  for  at 
that  date  the  Remembrancer  abruptly  closes. 

The  only  truly  good  service  rendered  to 
those  much  tried  souls  was  by  a  negro  wo- 
man, Dinah,  who,  too  good  for  this  earth, 
died  ;  and  in  her  death  involved  them 
in   fresh  trouble,  for  in   that 
war-swept  town  they  could 
scarce  procure  her 
burial. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

FIRESIDE   INDUSTRIES. 

AROUND  the  great  glowing  fireplace  in 
an  old  New  England  kitchen  centred 
the  homeliness  and  picturesqueness  of  an  old- 
time  home.  The  walls  and  floor  were  bare  ; 
the  furniture  was  often  meagre,  plain,  and 
comfortless  ;  the  windows  were  small  and  ill- 
fitting  ;  the  whole  house  was  draughty  and 
cold ;  but  in  the  kitchen  glowed  a  benefi- 
cent heart  that  spread  warmth  and  cheer  and 
welcome,  and  beauty  also  when 

the  old  rude-furnished  room 
Burst  flower-like  into  rosy  bloom. 

The  settlers  builded  great  chimneys  with 
ample  open  hearths,  and  to  those  hearths 
the  vast  forests  supplied  plentiful  fuel ;  but 
as  the  forests  disappeared  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  towns,  the  fireplaces  also  shrank  in  size, 
so  that  in  Franklin's  day  he  could  write  of 
the  big  chimneys  as  "the  fireplaces  of  our 
fathers ; "  and  his  inventions  for  economiz- 
ing 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  277 

ing  fuel  had  begun  to  be  regarded  as  neces- 
sities. 

The  kitchen  was  the  housewife's  domain, 
the  chimney-seat  her  throne  ;  but  the  furni- 
ture of  that  throne  and  the  sceptre  were 
far  different  from  the  kitchen  furnishings  of 
to-day. 

We  often  see  fireplaces  with  hanging 
cranes  in  pictures  illustrating  earliest  colo- 
nial times,  but  the  crane  was  unknown  in 
those  days.  When  the  seventeenth-century 
chimney  was  built,  ledges  were  left  on  either 
side,  and  on  them  rested  the  ends  of  a  long 
heavy  pole  of  green  wood,  called  a  lug-pole 
or  back  bar.  The  derivation  of  the  word 
lug-pole  is  often  given  as  meaning  from  lug 
to  lug,  as  the  chimney-side  was  often  called 
the  lug.  Whittier  wrote  :  — 

And  for  him  who  sat  by  the  chimney  lug. 

Others  give  it  from  the  old  English  word 
lug,  to  carry  ;  for  it  was  indeed  the  carrying- 
pole.  It  was  placed  high  up  in  the  yawning 
chimney,  with  the  thought  and  intent  of  its 
being  out  of  reach  of  the  devouring  flames, 
and  from  it  hung  a  motley  collection  of 
hooks  of  various  lengths  and  weights,  some- 
times 


2/8     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

times  with  long  rods,  sometimes  with  chains, 
and  rejoicing  in  various  names.  Pot-hooks, 
pot  -  hangers,  pot  -  hangles,  pot  -  claws,  pot- 
cleps,  were  one  and  the  same ;  so  also  were 
trammels  and  crooks.  Gib  and  gibcroke 
were  other  titles.  Hake  was  of  course  the 
old  English  for  hook :  — 

On  went  the  boilers  till  the  hake 
Had  much  ado  to  bear  'em. 

A  twi-crook  was  a  double  hook. 

Other  terms  were  gallow-balke,  for  the 
lug-pole,  and  gallow-crookes  for  pot-hooks. 
These  were  Yorkshire  words,  used  alike  in 
that  county  by  common  folk  and  gentry. 
They  appear  in  the  inventory  of  the  goods 
of  Sir  Timothy  Hutton,  and  in  the  farming- 
book  of  Henry  Best,  both  dating  to  the  time 
of  settlement  of  New  England.  A  recon 
was  another  Yorkshire  name  for  a  chain  with 
pot-hooks.  They  were  heard  but  rarely  in 
New  England. 

The  "  eetch-hooke "  named  by  Thomas 
Angell,  of  Providence,  in  1694,  with  his 
"tramils  and  pot  hookes"  is  an  unknown 
and  undescribable  form  of  trammel  to  me, 
possibly  an  H-hook. 

By 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  2/9 

By  these  vari-named  hooks  were  suspended 
at  various  heights  over  the  flames  pots,  ket- 
tles, and  other  bailed  cooking  utensils. 

The  lug-pole,  though  made  of  green  wood, 
often  became  brittle  or  charred  through  too 
long  and  careless  use  over  the  hot  fire,  and 
was  left  in  the  chimney  till  it  broke  under 
its  weighty  burden  of  food  and  metal.  And 
as  within  the  chimney  corner  was  a  favorite 
seat  for  both  old  and  young  of  the  house- 
hold, not  only  were  precious  cooking  utensils 
endangered  and  food  lost,  but  human  life  as 
well,  as  told  in  Judge  Sewall's  diary,  and  in 
other  diaries  and  letters  of  the  times.  So, 
when  the  iron  crane  was  hung  in  the  fire- 
place, it  not  only  added  grace  and  conven- 
ience to  the  family  hearth,  but  safety  as  well. 
On  it  still  were  hung  the  pot-hooks  and 
trammels,  but  with  shortened  arms  or  hang- 
ers. 

The  mantel  was  sometimes  called  by  the 
old  English  name,  clavy  or  clavel-piece.  In 
one  of  John  Wynter's  letters,  written  in 
1634,  he  describes  his  new  home  in  Maine  : 

The  chimney  is  large,  with  an  oven  in  each 
end  of  him  :  he  is  so  large  that  we  can  place  our 
Cyttle  within  the  Clavell-piece.  We  can  brew 

and 


280    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

and  bake  and  boyl   our  Cyttle  all   at   once  in 
him. 

The  change  in  methods  of  cooking  is 
plainly  evinced  in  many  of  our  common 
kitchen  utensils.  In  olden  times  the  pots 
and  kettles  always  stood  on  legs,  and  all 
skillets  and  frying-pans  and  saucepans  stood 
on  slender  legs,  that,  if  desired,  they  might 
be  placed  with  their  contents  over  small 
beds  of  coals  raked  to  one  side  of  the  hearth. 
A  further  convenience  to  assist  this  stand- 
ing over  coals  was  a  little  trivet,  a  tripod  or 
three-footed  stand,  usually  but  a  simple  skele- 
ton frame  on  which  the  skillet  could  be 
placed.  In  the  corner  of  a  fireplace  would 
be  seen  trivets  with  legs  of  various  lengths, 
through  which  the  desired  amount  of  heat 
could  be  obtained.  We  read  in  Eden's  First 
Books  on  America:  — 

He  shulde  fynde  in  one  place  a  fryingpan,  in 
another  chauldron,  here  a  tryvet,  there  a  spytte, 
and  these  in  kynde  in  every  pore  mans  house  :  — 

Of  somewhat  later  date  was  the  toast  rack, 
also  standing  on  its  little  spindling  legs. 

No  better  list  can  be  given  of  the  kitchen 
utensils  of  earliest  colonial  days  in  America 

than 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  28 1 

than  those  found  in  the  inventories  of  the 
estates  of  the  dead  immigrants.  These  in- 
ventories are,  in  some  cases,  still  preserved 
in  the  Colonial  Court  Records.  We  find 
that  Madam  Olmstead,  of  Hartford,  Conn., 
had,  in  1640,  in  her  kitchen  :  — 

2  Brasse  Skillets  i  Ladle  i  candlestick 
one  mortar  all  of  brasse  i  brasse  pott  5. 

7  Small  peuter  dishes  i  peuter  bason  6 
porringers  2  peuter  candlesticks  i 
frudishe  2  little  sasers  i  smale  plate,  i.  10. 

7  biger  peuter  dishes  i  salt  2  peuter 
cupps  i  peuter  dram  i  peuter  bottel 
i  Warmeing  pan  13  peuter  spoons.. .  2.  12. 

1  Stupan  3  bowles  &  a  tunnel  7  dishes 
10    spoones    one  Wooddin    cupp   i 
Wooddin  platter  with  three  old  latten 
panns  Two  dozen  and  a  halfe  trench- 
ers two  wyer  candlesticks 1 1. 

2  Jacks  2   Bottels  2  drinking  homes  i 

little  pott 10. 

2  beare  hogsheads  2  beare  barrels  2 
powdering  tubs  4  brueing  vessels  i 
cowle  2  firkins 2. 

This  was  certainly  a  very  good  outfit.  The 
utensils  for  the  manufacture  and  storage  of 
beer  did  not  probably  stand  in  the  kitchen, 

but 


282     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

but  in  the  lean-to  or  brew-house.  A  "  cowl " 
was  a  large  tub  with  ears  ;  in  it  liquids  could 
be  carried  by  two  persons,  who  bore  the 
ends  of  a  pole  thrust  through  the  ears  or 
handles.  Often  with  the  cowl  was  specified 
a  pail  with  iron  bail.  William  Harris,  of 
Pawtuxet,  R.  I.,  had,  in  1681,  "two  Payles 
and  one  jron  Bayle  "  worth  three  shillings. 
This  naming  of  the  pail-bail  marked  the 
change  in  the  form  of  pail  handles;  origi- 
nally, pails  were  carried  by  sticks  thrust 
through  ears  on  either  side  of  the  vessel. 

The  jacks  were  waxed  leather  jugs  or 
drinking  horns,  much  used  in  English  ale- 
houses in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  cen- 
turies, whose  use  gave  rise  to  the  singular 
notion  of  the  French  that  Englishmen  drank 
their  ale  out  of  their  boots.  Governor  Win- 
throp  had  jacks  and  leather  bottles  ;  but 
both  names  disappear  from  inventories  by 
the  year  1700,  in  New  England. 

These  leather  bottles  were  in  universal 
use  in  England  "among  shepherds  and  har- 
vest-people in  the  countrey."  They  were 
also  called  bombards.  Their  praises  were 
sung  in  a  very  spirited  ballad,  of  which  I 
give  a  few  lines  :  — 

I 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  283 

I  wish  in  heaven  his  soul  may  dwell 
Who  first  found  out  the  leather  bottell. 
A  leather  bottell  we  know  is  good 
Far  better  than  glasses  or  cases  of  wood, 
For  when  a  mans  at  work  in  a  field 
Your  glasses  and  pots  no  comfort  will  yield, 
But  a  good  leather  bottell  standing  by 
Will  raise  his  spirits  whenever  he  's  dry. 

And  when  the  bottell  at  last  grows  old, 

And  will  good  liquor  no  longer  hold, 

Out  of  the  side  you  may  make  a  clout 

To  mend  your  shoes  when  they  're  worn  out, 

Or  take  and  hang  it  up  on  a  pin 

T  will  serve  to  put  hinges  and  odd  things  in. 

Latten-ware  was  a  kind  of  brass.  It  may 
be  noted  that  no  tin  appears  on  this  list,  nor 
in  many  of  the  inventories  of  these  early 
Connecticut  colonists.  Thomas  Hooker  had 
several  "tynnen  covers." 

Brass  utensils  were  far  from  cheap.  Hand- 
some brass  mortars  were  expensive.  Brass 
kettles  were  worth  three  pounds  apiece.  No 
wonder  the  Indians  wished  their  brass  ket- 
tles buried  with  them  as  their  most  precious 
possessions.  The  brass  utensils  of  William 
Whiting,  of  Hartford,  in  1649,  were  worth 
twenty  pounds ;  Thomas  Hooker's,  about  fif- 
teen pounds.  Among  other  utensils  named 
in  the  inventories  of  some  neighbors  of 

Mr. 


284     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

Mr.  Hooker  were  an  "iron  to  make  Wafer 
cakes,"  "dyitt  vessels,"  "shredin  knife," 
"flesh  fork."  Robert  Day  had  a  "brass 
chaffin  dish,  35,  lether  bottle  2s,  brass  posnet 
43,  brass  pott  6s,  brass  kettle  2.  IDS."  A 
chafing-dish  in  olden  times  was  an  open  box 
of  wire  into  which  coals  were  thrust. 

Dame  Huit,  of  Windsor,  Conn.,  had  these 
articles,  among  others  :  — 

i  Cullender  2  Pudding  pans.  In  kitchen 
in  brasse  &  Iron  potts,  ladles,  skim- 
mers, dripping  pans,  posnets,  and 
other  pans 6.  IDS. 

A  pair  Andirons  2  Brandii  2  Pair  Crooks 
3  pair  of  tonges  and  Iron  Spitts  pot- 
hangers i. 

i  Fornace 2. 

Tubbs  pales  churnes  butter  barrels  & 
other  woodin  implements 2. 

The  "  two  Brandii "  were  brand-irons  or 
brond-yrons,  a  kind  of  trivet  or  support  to 
set  on  the  andirons.  Sometimes  they  held 
brands  or  logs  in  place,  or  upon  them  dishes 
could  be  placed.  Toasting-irons  and  broil- 
ing-irons are  named.  "  Scieufes,"  or  sieves, 
were  worth  a  shilling  apiece. 

Eleazer 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  285 

Eleazer  Lusher,  of  Dedham,  Mass.,  in 
1672,  owned  cob-irons,  trammels,  firepans, 
gridirons,  toasting-fork,  salt  pan,  brand  pan, 
mortar,  pestle,  box  iron  heaters,  kettles,  skil- 
lets, spits,  frying-pan,  ladles,  skimmers,  chaf- 
ing-dishes, pots,  pot-hooks,  and  creepers. 

The  name  creeper  brings  to  our  considera- 
tion one  of  the  homeliest  charms  of  the  fire- 
place—  the  andirons.  Creepers  were  the 
lower  and  smaller  andirons  placed  between 
the  great  firedogs.  The  word  is  also  applied 
to  a  low  cooking  spider,  which  could  be 
pushed  in  among  the  embers.  Cob-irons 
were  the  simplest  form  of  andirons,  and  usu- 
ally were  used  merely  to  support  the  spit ; 
sometimes  they  had  hooks  to  hold  a  dripping- 
pan  under  the  spit.  Sometimes  a  fireplace 
showed  three  pairs  of  andirons,  on  which 
logs  could  be  laid  at  various  heights.  Some- 
times a  single  pair  of  andirons  had  three 
sets  of  hooks  or  branches  for  the  same  pur- 
pose. They  were  made  of  iron,  copper,  steel, 
or  brass,  often  cast  in  a  handsome  design. 
The  andirons  played  an  important  part  in 
the  construction  and  preservation  of  a  fire. 

And  the  construction  of  one  of  these  great 
fires  was  no  light  or  careless  matter.  Whit- 
tier, 


286     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

tier,  in  his    Snow-Bound,  thus  tells  of  the 
making  of  the  fire  in  his  home :  — 

We  piled  with  care  our  nightly  stack 
Of  wood  against  the  chimney-back,  — 
The  oaken  log,  green,  huge,  and  thick, 
And  on  its  top  the  stout  back-stick ; 
The  knotty  forestick  laid  apart, 
And  filled  between  with  curious  art 
The  ragged  brush ;  then  hovering  near 
We  watched  the  first  red  blaze  appear. 

Often  the  great  backlog  had  to  be  rolled 
in  with  handspikes,  sometimes  drawn  in  by 
a  chain  and  yoke  of  oxen.  The  making  of 
the  fire  and  its  preservation  from  day  to  day 
were  of  equal  importance.  The  covering  of 
the  brands  at  night  was  one  of  the  domestic 
duties,  whose  non-fulfillment  in  those  match- 
less days  often  rendered  necessary  a  journey 
with  fire  shovel  to  the  house  of  the  nearest 
neighbor  to  obtain  glowing  coals  to  start 
again  the  kitchen  fire. 

A  domestic  luxury  seen  in  well-to-do  homes 
was  a  tin  kitchen,  a  box-like  arrangement 
open  on  one  side,  which  was  set  next  the 
blaze.  It  stood  on  four  legs.  In  it  bread 
was  baked  or  roasted.  Through  the  kitchen 
passed  a  spit,  which  could  be  turned  by  an 

external 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  287 

external  handle  ;  on  it  meat  was  spitted  to 
be  roasted. 

The  brick  oven  was  not  used  so  fre- 
quently, usually  but  once  a  week.  This  was 
a  permanent  furnishing.  When  the  great 
chimney  was  built,  a  solid  heap  of  stones 
was  placed  for  its  foundation,  and  a  vast  and 
massive  structure  was  reared  upon  it.  On 
one  side  of  the  kitchen  fireplace,  but  really 
a  part  of  the  chimney  whole,  was  an  oven 
which  opened  at  one  side  into  the  chimney, 
and  below  an  ash  pit  with  swinging  iron 
doors  with  a  damper.  To  heat  this  oven  a 
great  fire  of  dry  wood  was  kindled  within  it, 
and  kept  burning  fiercely  for  some  hours. 
Then  the  coal  and  ashes  were  removed,  the 
chimney  draught  and  damper  were  closed, 
and  the  food  to  be  cooked  was  placed  in  the 
heated  oven.  Great  pans  of  brown  bread, 
pots  of  pork  and  beans,  an  Indian  pudding, 
a  dozen  pies,  all  went  into  the  fiery  furnace 
together. 

On  Thanksgiving  week  the  great  oven  was 
heated  night  and  morning  for  several  days. 
To  place  edibles  at  the  rear  of  the  glowing 
oven,  it  is  plain  some  kind  of  a  shovel  must 
be  used  ;  and  an  abnormally  long-handled 

One 


288    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

one  was  universally  found  by  the  oven-side. 
It  was  called  a  slice  or  peel,  or  fire-peel  or 
bread-peel.  Such  an  emblem  was  it  of  do- 
mestic utility  and  unity  that  a  peel  and  a 
strong  pair  of  tongs  were  a  universal  and 
luck-bearing  gift  to  a  bride.  A  good  iron 
peel  and  tongs  cost  about  a  dollar  and  a  half. 
The  name  occurs  constantly  in  old  wills 
among  kitchen  properties.  We  read  of  "  the 
oven,  the  mawkin,  the  bavin,  the  peel" 
Sometimes,  when  the  oven  was  heated,  the 
peel  was  besprinkled  with  meal,  and  great 
heaps  of  rye  and  Indian  dough  were  placed 
thereon,  and  by  a  dextrous  and  indescriba- 
ble twist  thrown  upon  cabbage  leaves  on  the 
oven-bottom,  and  thus  baked  in  a  haycock 
shape. 

"  Shepherd  Tom  "  Hazard,  in  his  inimita- 
ble Jonny  Cake  Papers,  thus  speaks  of  the 
old-time  methods  of  baking  :  — 

Rhineinjun  bread,  vulgarly  called  nowadays 
rye  and  Indian  bread,  in  the  olden  time  was  al- 
ways made  of  one  quart  of  unbolted  Rhode  Is- 
land rye  meal  to  two  quarts  of  the  coarser  grained 
parts  of  Ambrosia  (Narragansett  corn  meal)  well 
kneaded  and  made  into  large  round  loaves  of  the 

size 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  289 

size  of  a  half-peck  measure.  There  are  two  ways 
.  of  baking  it.  One  way  was  to  fill  two  large  iron 
basins  with  the  kneaded  dough  and,  late  in  the 
evening,  when  the  logs  were  well  burned  down, 
to  clear  a  place  in  the  middle  of  the  fire  and 
place  the  two  basins  of  bread,  one  on  top  of  the 
other,  so  as  to  inclose  their  contents  and  press 
them  into  one  loaf.  The  whole  was  then  care- 
fully covered  with  hot  ashes,  with  coals  on  top, 
and  left  until  morning.  Another  way  was  to 
place  a  number  of  loaves  in  iron  basins  in  a 
long-heated  and  well-tempered  brick  oven —  stone 
would  not  answer  as  the  heat  is  too  brittle  —  into 
which  a  cup  of  water  was  also  placed  to  make 
the  crust  soft.  The  difference  between  brown 
bread  baked  in  this  way,  with  its  thick,  soft, 
sweet  crust,  from  that  baked  in  the  oven  of  an 
iron  stove  I  leave  to  abler  pens  than  mine  to 
portray. 

In  friendly  chimney  corners  there  stood  a 
jovial  companion  of  the  peel  and  tongs, 
the  flip  iron,  or  loggerhead,  or  flip-dog,  or 
bottle.  Lowell  wrote  :  — 

Where  dozed  a  fire  of  beechen  logs  that  bred 
Strange  fancies  in  its  embers  golden-red, 
And  nursed  the  loggerhead,  whose  hissing  dip, 
Timed  by  nice  instinct,  creamed  the  bowl  of  flip. 

Flip 


290    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

Flip  was  a  drink  of  vast  popularity,  and  I 
believe  of  potent  benefit  in  those  days  when 
fierce  winters  and  cold  houses  made  hot 
drinks  more  necessary  to  the  preservation  of 
health  than  nowadays.  I  have  drunk  flip, 
but,  like  many  a  much-vaunted  luxury  of  the 
olden  time,  I  prefer  to  read  of  it.  It  is  inde- 
scribably burnt  and  bitter  in  flavor. 

It  may  be  noted  in  nearly  all  old  inven- 
tories that  a  warming-pan  is  a  part  of  the 
kitchen  furnishing.  Wood  wrote  in  1634  of 
exportation  to  the  New  England  colony, 
"  Warming  pannes  &  stewing  pannes  are  of 
necessary  use  and  very  good  traffick  there." 
One  was  invoiced  in  1642  at  3-r.  6d.t  another 
in  1654  at  5-r.  A  warming-pan  was  a  shallow 
pan  of  metal,  usually  brass  or  iron,  about  a 
foot  in  diameter  and  three  or  four  inches 
deep,  with  a  pierced  brass  or  copper  cover. 
It  was  fitted  with  a  long  wooden  handle. 
When  used,  it  was  filled  with  coals,  and  when 
thoroughly  heated,  was  thrust  between  the 
icy  sheets  of  the  bed,  and  moved  up  and 
down  to  give  warmth  to  every  corner.  Its 
fireside  neighbor  was  the  footstove,  a  box  of 
perforated  metal  in  a  wooden  frame,  within 
which  hot  coals  could  be  placed  to  warm  the 

feet 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  2QI 

feet  of  the  goodwife  during  a  long  winter's 
drive,  or  to  render  endurable  the  arctic  atmos- 
phere of  the  unheated  churches.  Often  a 
lantern  of  pierced  metal  hung  near  the  warm- 
ing-pan. The  old-time  lanterns,  still  occa- 
sionally found  in  New  England  kitchens  or 
barns,  form  a  most  interesting  study  for  the 
antiquary,  and  a  much  neglected  fad  for  the 
collector.  I  have  one  of  Elizabethan  shape, 
to  which,  when  I  found  it,  fragments  of  thin 
sheets  of  horn  still  clung  —  the  remains  of 
the  horn  slides  which  originally  were  en- 
closed in  the  metal  frame. 

High  up  on  the  heavy  beam  over  the  fire- 
place stood  usually  a  candlestick,  an  old  lamp, 
perhaps  a  sausage  stuffer,  or  a  spice-mill,  or 
a  candle  mold,  a  couple  of  wooden  noggins, 
sometimes  a  pipe-tongs.  By  the  side  of  the 
fireplace  hung  the  soot-blackened,  smoke- 
dried  almanac,  and  near  it  often  hung  a 
betty-lamp,  whose  ill-smelling  flame  could 
supply  for  conning  the  pages  a  closer  though 
scarce  brighter  light  than  the  flickering 
hearth  flame. 

By  the  hearth,  sometimes  in  the  chimney 
corner,  stood  the  high-backed  settle,  a  shel- 
tered 


292     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

tered  seat,  while  the  family  dye-pot  often  was 
used  by  the  children  as  a  chimney  bench. 
1  Many  household  utensils  once  in  common 
Use  in  New  England  are  now  nearly  obsolete. 
In  many  cases  the  old-time  names  are  disused 
and  forgotten,  while  the  object  itself  may 
still  be  found  with  some  modern  appellation. 
In  reading  old  wills,  inventories,  and  enroll- 
ments, and  the  advertisements  in  old  news- 
papers, I  have  made  many  notes  of  these 
old  names,  and  have  sometimes  succeeded, 
though  with  difficulty,  in  identifying  the 
utensils  thus  designated.  Of  course  the 
different  English  shire  dialects  supply  a  va- 
riety of  local  names.  In  some  cases  good 
old  English  words  have  been  retained  in 
constant  use  in  New  England,  while  wholly 
archaic  in  the  fatherland. 

In  every  thrifty  New  England  home  there 
stood  a  tub  containing  a  pickle  for  salting 
meat  It  was  called  a  powdering-tub,  or 
powdering-trough.  This  use  of  the  word 
"  powder  "  for  salt  dates  even  before  Shake- 
speare's day. 

Grains  is  an  obsolete  word  for  tines  or 
prongs.  Winthrop  wrote  in  1643  tnat  a 
snake  crawled  in  the  Assembly  room,  and 

a 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  293 

a  parson  "  held  it  with  his  foot  and  staff  with 
a  small  pair  of  grains  and  killed  it." 

Spenser  used  the  word  "flasket"  thus: 
"  In  which  to  gather  flowers  to  fill  their  flas- 
ket." It  was  a  basket,  or  hamper,  made  of 
woven  wicker.  John  Hull,  writing  in  1675, 
asks  that  "  Wikker  Flasketts  "  be  brought  to 
him  on  the  Sea  Flower. 

A  skeel  was  a  small,  shallow  wooden  tub, 
principally  used  for  holding  milk  to  stand 
for  cream.  It  sometimes  had  one  handle. 
The  word  is  now  used  in  Yorkshire.  Akin 
to  it  is  the  word  keeler,  a  small  wooden  tub, 
which  is  still  constantly  heard  in  New  Eng- 
land, especially  in  application  to  a  tub  in 
which  dishes  are  washed.  Originally,  cedar 
keelers  were  made  to  hold  milk,  and  a  losset 
was  also  a  large  flat  wooden  dish  used  for 
the  same  purpose.  A  skippet  was  a  vessel 
much  like  a  dipper,  small  and  round,  with 
long  handle,  and  used  for  ladling  liquids. 

A  quarn  was  a  hand-mill  for  grinding  meal, 
and  sometimes  it  stood  in  a  room  by  itself. 
It  was  a  step  in  domestic  progress  beyond 
pounding  grain  with  a  pestle  in  a  mortar, 
and  was  of  earlier  date  than  the  windmill  or 
water-mill.  In  Wiclif's  translation  we  read 


294    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

in  Matthew  xxiv :  "  Two  wymmen  schalen  be 
gryndynge  in  quern,"  etc.  This  word  is  also 
used  by  Shakespeare  in  Midsummer  Nighfs 
Dream.  In  early  New  England  wills  the 
word  is  found,  as  in  one  of  1671  :  "I  paire 
Quarnes  and  Lumber  in  the  quarne  house, 
IOJ."  It  was  sometimes  spelled  "  cairn,"  as 
in  a  Windham  will,  and  also  "quern"  and 
"quirn." 

Sometimes  a  most  puzzling  term  will  be 
found  in  one  of  these  old  inventories,  one 
which  appears  absolutely  incomprehensible. 
Here  is  one  which  seems  like  a  riddle  of 
which  the  answer  is  irrevocably  lost :  "  One 
Billy  bassha  Pan."  It  is  found  in  the  kitchen 
list  of  the  rich  possessions  of  Madam  De 
Peyster,  in  1774,  which  inventory  is  pre- 
served in  the  family  archives  at  the  Van 
Cortlandt  Manor  House,  at  Croton-on-Hud- 
son.  You  can  give  any  answer  you  please 
to  the  riddle ;  but  my  answer  is  this,  in 
slightly  altered  verse.  I  think  that  Madam 
De  Peyster's  cook  used  that  dish  to  serve  :  — 

A  sort  of  soup  or  broth  or  stew 
Or  hotchpot  of  all  sorts  of  fishes, 

That  Greenwich  never  could  outdo, 
Green  herbs,  red  peppers,  mussels,  saffron, 

Soles 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  2$$ 

Soles,  onions,  garlic,  roach  and  dace  ; 
All  these  were  cooked  in  the  Manor  kitchen, 
In  that  one  dish  of  Bouillabaisse. 

The  early  settlers  were  largely  indebted  to 
various  forest  trees  for  cheap,  available,  and 
utilizable  material  for  the  manufacture  of 
both  kitchen  utensils  and  tableware.  Wood- 
turning  was  for  many  years  a  recognized 
trade  ;  dish-turner  a  business  title.  We  find 
Lion  Gardiner  writing  to  John  Winthrop, 
Jr.,  in  1652,  "  My  wyfe  desireth  Mistress 
Lake  to  get  her  a  dozen  of  trays  for  shee 
hearith  that  there  is  a  good  tray-maker  with 
you." 

Governor  Bradford  found  the  Indians  using 
wooden  bowls,  trays,  and  dishes,  and  the  "  In- 
dian bowls,"  made  from  the  knots  of  maple- 
trees,  were  much  sought  after  by  housekeep- 
ers till  this  century.  A  fine  specimen  of 
these  bowls  is  now  in  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society.  It  was  originally  taken 
from  the  wigwam  of  King  Philip.  Wooden 
noggins  (low  bowls  with  handles)  are  con- 
stantly named  in  early  inventories,  and  Mary 
Ring,  of  Plymouth,  thought,  in  1633,  that  a 
"wodden  cupp"  was  valuable  enough  to 
leave  by  will  as  a  token  of  friendship. 

Wooden 


296    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

Wooden  trenchers,  also  made  by  hand,  were 
used  on  the  table  for  more  than  a  century, 
and  were  universally  bequeathed  by  will, 
as  by  that  of  Miles  Standish.  White  pop- 
lar wood  made  specially  handsome  dishes. 
Wooden  pans  were  made  in  which  to  set 
miik.  Wooden  bread  troughs  were  used  in 
every  home.  These  were  oblong,  trencher- 
shaped  bowls,  about  a  foot  and  a  half  in 
length,  hollowed  and  shaped  by  hand  from  a 
log  of  wood.  Across  the  trough  ran  length- 
wise a  stick  or  rod,  on  which  the  flour  was 
sifted  in  a  temse,  or  scarce,  or  sieve.  The 
saying,  "  set  the  Thames  on  fire,"  is  said  to 
have  been  originally  "set  the  temse  on 
fire,"  meaning  that  hard  labor  would,  by  the 
friction  of  constant  turning,  set  the  wooden 
temse,  or  sieve,  on  fire. 

It  was  not  necessary  to  apply  to  the  wood- 
turner to  manufacture  these  simply  shaped 
dishes.  Every  winter  the  men  and  boys  of 
the  household  manufactured  every  kind  of 
domestic  utensils  and  portions  of  farm  imple- 
ments that  could  be  whittled  or  made  from 
wood  with  simple  tools.  By  the  cheerful 
kitchen  fireside  much  of  this  work  was  done. 
Indeed,  the  winter  picture  of  the  fireside 

should 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  297 

should  always  show  the  figure  of  a  whittling 
boy.  They  made  butter  paddles  of  red 
cherry,  salt  mortars,  pig  troughs,  pokes,  sled 
neaps,  ax  helves,  which  were  sawn,  whittled, 
and  carefully  scraped  with  glass ;  box  traps 
and  "  figure  4  "  traps,  noggins,  keelers,  rund- 
lets,  flails,  cheese-hoops,  cheese-ladders,  stan- 
chions, handles  for  all  kinds  of  farm  imple- 
ments, and  niddy-noddys.  Strange  to  say, 
the  latter  word  is  not  found  in  any  of  our 
dictionaries,  though  the  word  is  as  well 
known  in  country  vernacular  as  the  article 
itself — a  hand-reel  —  or  as  the  old  riddle :  — 

Niddy-noddy, 
Two  heads  and  one  body. 

There  were  still  other  wooden  vessels.  In 
his  Philocothonista,  or  The  Drunkard  Opened, 
Dissected  and  Anatomized  (1635),  Thomas 
Heywood,  gives  for  "carouseing-bowles  of 
wood  "  these  names:  "mazers,  noggins,  whis- 
kins,  piggins,  cruizes,  wassel-bowles,  ale- 
bowles,  court-dishes,  tankards,  kannes." 

There  were   many  ways  of  usefully  em- 
ploying the  winter  evening  hours.      Some 
thrifty  folk  a  hundred   years  ago  occupied 
spare  time   in  sticking  card-teeth  in  wool- 
cards. 


298     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND    GOODW1VES. 

cards.  The  strips  of  pierced  leather  and  the 
wire  teeth  bent  in  proper  shape  were  sup- 
plied to  them  by  the  card  manufacturer. 
The  long  leather  strips  and  boxes  filled  with 
the  bent  wire  teeth  might  be  seen  standing 
in  many  a  country  home,  and  many  an  even- 
ing by  the  light  of  the  blazing  fire,  —  for  the 
work  required  little  eyesight  or  dexterity,  — 
sat  the  children  on  dye-pot,  crickets,  and 
logs  of  wood,  earning  a  scant  sum  to  add  to 
their  "  broom-money." 

By  the  side  of  the  chimney,  in  New  Eng- 
land country  houses,  always  hung  a  broom 
or  besom  of  peeled  birch.  These  birch 
brooms  were  a  characteristic  New  England 
production.  To  make  one  a  straight  birch- 
tree  from  three  to  four  inches  in  diameter 
was  chosen,  and  about  five  feet  of  the  trunk 
was  cut  off.  Ten  inches  from  the  larger  end 
a  notch  was  cut  around  the  stick,  and  the  bark 
peeled  off  from  thence  to  the  end.  Then 
with  a  sharp  knife  the  bared  end  was  care- 
fully split  up  to  the  notch  in  slender  slivers, 
which  were  held  back  by  the  broom-maker's 
left  hand  until  they  became  too  many  and  too 
bulky  to  restrain,  when  they  were  tied  back 
with  a  string.  As  the  tendency  of  the  sliv- 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  299 

ers  or  splints  was  to  grow  slightly  thinner 
toward  the  notch,  there  was  left  in  the  heart 
of  the  growing  broom  a  short  core,  which  had 
to  be  whittled  off.  When  this  was  done  the 
splints  were  all  turned  back  to  their  first 
and  natural  position,  a  second  notch  was  cut 
an  inch  above  the  first  one,  leaving  a  strip 
of  bark  an  inch  in  diameter ;  the  bark  was 
peeled  off  from  what  was  destined  to  be 
the  broom  handle,  and  a  series  of  splints 
was  shaved  down  toward  the  second  notch. 
Enough-  of  the  stick  was  left  to  form  the 
handle ;  this  was  carefully  whittled  until  an 
inch  or  so  in  diameter,  was  smoothed,  and 
furnished  with  a  hole  in  the  end  in  which 
to  place  a  string  or  a  strip  of  leather  for  sus- 
pension. The  second  series  of  splints  from 
the  handle  end  was  firmly  turned  down  and 
tied  with  hempen  twine  over  the  wholly 
splintered  end,  and  all  the  splints  cut  off 
the  same  length.  The  inch  of  bark  which 
remained  of  the  original  tree  helped  to  hold 
the  broom- splints  firmly  in  place. 

When  these  brooms  were  partly  worn,  the 
restraining  string  could  be  removed,  and  the 
flaring  splints  formed  an  ideal  oven-besom, 
spreading  and  cleaning  the  ashes  from  every 

corner 


300    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND  GOOD  WIVES. 

corner  and  crevice.  Corn  brooms  were  un- 
known in  these  country  neighborhoods  until 
about  the  middle  of  the  present  century. 

A  century,  and  even  as  late  as  half  a  cen- 
tury ago,  many  a  farmer's  son  (and  daughter 
too)  throughout  New  England  earned  his  or 
her  first  spending-money  by  making  birch 
*   brooms  for  the  country  stores,  from  whence 
they  were  sent  to  the  large  cities,  especially 
;     Boston,  where  there  was  a  constant  demand 
1     for  them.     In  Northampton,  about  1790,  one 
\  shopkeeper  kept  as  many  as  seven  or  eight 
hundred  of  these  brooms  on   hand  at  one 
time. 

The  boys  and  girls  did  not  grow  rich  very 
fast  at  broom-making.  Throughout  Ver- 
mont, fifty  years  ago,  the  uniform  price  paid 
to  the  maker  for  these  brooms  was  but  six 
cents  apiece,  and  as  he  had  to  work  at  least 
three  evenings  to  make  one  broom,  —  to  say 
nothing  of  the  time  spent  in  selecting  and 
cutting  the  birch-tree,  —  it  was  not  so  pro- 
fitable an  industry  as  gathering  beech-nuts 
at  a  dollar  a  bushel.  Major  Robert  Randolph 
told  in  fashionable  London  circles,  that 
about  the  year  1750,  he  carried  many  a 
loadof  these  birch  brooms  on  his  back  ten 

miles 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  301 

miles  to  Concord,  that  he  might  thus  earn  a 
few  shillings.  Such  brooms  were  known  by 
different  names  in  different  localities  :  birch 
brooms,  splinter  brooms,  and  Indian  brooms. 
The  Indians  were  very  proficient  in  making 
them,  and  it  is  said  invented  them.  This 
can  readily  be  believed,  for  like  birch-bark 
canoes  and  snowshoes,  they  are  examples  of 
perfection  in  utility  and  in  the  employment 
of  native  materials.  Squaws  wandered  over 
certain  portions  of  the  country  bearing 
brooms  on  their  backs,  peddling  them  from 
house  to  house  for  ninepence  apiece  and  a 
drink  of  cider.  In  1806,  one  minister  of 
Haverhill,  New  Hampshire,  had  two  of  these 
brooms  given  to  him  as  a  marriage  fee. 
When  a  Hadley  man  planted  broom  corn  in 
1797,  and  made  corn  brooms  to  sell,  he  was 
scornfully  met  with  the  remark  that  broom- 
making  was  work  for  Indians  and  boys.  It 
was  long  ere  his  industry  crowded  out  the 
sturdy  birch  brooms. 

There  were  many  domestic  duties  which 
did  not  waft  sweet  "  odors  of  Araby ; "  the 
annual  spring  manufacture  of  soft  soap  for 
home  consumption  was  one  of  them,  and 
also  one  of  the  most  important  and  most 

trying 


302     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

trying  of  all  the  household  industries.  The 
refuse  grease  from  the  family  cooking  was 
stowed  away  in  tubs  and  barrels  through  the 
cool  winter  months  in  unsavory  masses,  and 
the  wood-ashes  from  the  great  fireplaces 
were  also  thriftily  stored  until  the  carefully 
chosen  time  arrived.  The  day  was  selected 
with  much  deliberation,  after  close  con- 
sultation with  that  family  counselor,  the 
almanac,  for  the  moon  must  be  in  the  right 
quarter,  and  the  tide  at  the  flood,  if  the  soap 
were  to  "  come  right."  Then  the  leach  was 
was  set  outside  the  kitchen  door.  Some 
families  owned  a  strongly  made  leach-tub, 
some  used  a  barrel,  others  cut  a  section  from 
a  great  birch-tree,  and  removed  the  bark  to 
form  a  tub,  which  was  placed  loosely  in  a 
circular  groove  in  a  base  made  of  wood  or, 
preferably,  of  stone.  This  was  not  set  hori- 
zontally, but  was  slightly  inclined.  The  tub 
was  filled  with  ashes,  and  water  was  scantily 
poured  in  until  the  lye  trickled  or  leached 
out  of  an  outlet  cut  in  the  groove  at  the 
base.  The  "first  run  "  of  lye  was  not  strong 
enough  to  be  of  use,  and  was  poured  again 
upon  the  ashes.  The  wasted  ashes  were  re- 
plenished again  and  again,  and  water  poured 

in 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  303 

in  small  quantities  on  them,  and  the  lye 
accumulated  in  a  receptacle  placed  for  it.  It 
was  a  universal  test  that  when  the  lye  was 
strong  enough  to  hold  up  an  egg,  it  was  also 
strong  enough  to  use  for  the  soap  boiling. 
In  the  largest  iron  pot  the  grease  and  lye 
were  boiled  together,  often  over  a  great  fire 
built  in  the  open  air.  The  leached  ashes 
were  not  deemed  refuse  and  waste;  they 
were  used  by  the  farmer  as  a  fertilizer. 
Soap  made  in  this  way,  while  rank  and 
strong,  is  so  pure  and  clean  that  it  seems 
almost  like  a  jelly,  and  shows  no  trace  of 
the  vile  grease  that  helped  to  form  it. 

The  dancing  firelight  shone  out  on  no 
busier  scene  than  on  the  grand  candle-dip- 
ping. It  had  taken  weeks  to  prepare  for  this 
domestic  industry,  which  was  the  great 
household  event  of  the  late  autumn,  as  soap- 
making  was  of  the  spring.  Tallow  had  been 
carefully  saved  from  the  domestic  animals 
killed  on  the  farm,  the  honeyed  store  of 
the  patient  bee  had  been  robbed  of  wax  to 
furnish  materials,  and  there  was  still  another 
source  of  supply. 

The  summer  air  of  the  coast  of  New  Eng- 
land still  is  sweet  with  one  of  the  freshest, 

purest 


304    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

purest  plant-perfumes  in  the  world  —  the 
scent  of  bayberry.  These  dense  woody 
shrubs  bear  profusely  a  tiny,  spicy,  wax- 
coated  berry;  and  the  earliest  colonists 
quickly  learned  that  from  this  plentiful  berry 
could  be  obtained  an  inflammable  wax,  which 
(would  replace  and  supplement  any  lack  of 
Jtallow.  The  name  so  universally  applied  to 
"i  the  plant  —  candleberry  —  commemorates  its 
\employment  for  this  purpose.  I  never  pass 
the  clumps  of  bayberry  bushes  in  the  early 
autumn  without  eagerly  picking  and  crush- 
ing the  perfumed  leaves  and  berries ;  and 
the  clean,  fresh  scent  seems  to  awaken  a 
dim  recollection,  —  a  hereditary  memory,  — 
and  I  see,  as  in  a  vision,  the  sober  little  chil- 
dren of  the  Puritans  standing  in  the  clear 
glowing  sunlight,  and  faithfully  stripping 
from  the  gnarled  bushes  the  waxy  candle- 
berries  ;  not  only  affording  through  this  occu- 
pation material  assistance  to  the  household 
supplies,  but  finding  therein  health,  and  I 
am  sure  happiness,  if  they  loved  the  bay- 
berries  as  I,  their  descendant,  do. 
f  The  method  of  preparing  this  wax  was 
Dimple ;  it  still  exists  in  a  few  Plymouth 
|  County  households.  The  berries  are  simply 
^  boiled 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  305 

boiled  with  hot  water  in  a  kettle,  and  the 
resolved  wax  skimmed  off  the  top,  refined, 
and  permitted  to  harden  into  cakes  or  can- 
dles. The  references  in  old-time  records 
to  this  bayberry  wax  are  too  numerous  to  be 
recounted.  A  Virginian  governor,  Robert 
Beverley  (for  the  bayberry  and  its  wax  was 
known  also  in  the  South  as  myrtleberry 
wax),  gave,  perhaps,  the  clearest  description 
of  it:  — 

A  pale  green  brittle  wax  of  a  curious  green 
color,  which  by  refining  becomes  almost  trans- 
parent. Of  this  they  made  candles  which  are 
never  greasy  to  the  touch  nor  melt  with  lying  in 
the  hottest  weather;  neither  does  the  snuff  of 
these  ever  offend  the  smell,  like  that  of  a  tallow 
candle ;  but  instead  of  being  disagreeable,  if  an 
accident  puts  a  candle  out,  it  yields  a  pleasant 
fragrancy  to  all  that  are  in  the  room ;  insomuch 
that  nice  people  often  put  them  out  on  purpose 
to  have  the  incense  of  the  expiring  snuff. 

It  is  true  that  the  balmy  breath  of  the 
bayberry  is  exhaled  even  on  its  funeral  pyre. 
A  bayberry  candle  burns  like  incense  ;  and 
I  always  think  of  its  perfume  as  truly  the 
incense  to  the  household  hearth-gods  of  an 
old  New  England  home. 

Bayberry 


306    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND  GOOD  WIVES. 

Bayberry  wax  was  a  standard  farm-product, 
a  staple  article  of  traffic,  till  this  century,  and 
it  was  constantly  advertised  in  the  newspa- 
pers. As  early  as  1712,  Thomas  Lechmere 
wrote  to  John  Winthrop,  Jr. :  — 

I  am  now  to  beg  one  favour  of  you,  that  you 
secure  for  me  all  the  bayberry  wax  you  can  pos- 
sibly lay  yor  hands  on.  What  charge  you  shall 
be  at  securing  it  shall  be  thankfully  paid  you. 
You  must  take  a  care  that  they  do  not  putt  too 
much  tallow  among  it,  being  a  custome  and 
cheate  they  have  gott. 

When  the  candle-dipping  began,  a  fierce 
fire  was  built  in  the  fireplace,  and  over  it  was 
hung  the  largest  house  kettle,  half  filled  with 
water  and  melted  tallow,  or  wax  Candle- 
rods  were  brought  down  from  the  attic,  or 
pulled  out  from  under  the  edge  of  beams, 
and  placed  about  a  foot  and  a  half  apart, 
reaching  from  chair  to  chair. 

Boards  were  placed  underneath  to  save 
the  spotless  floor  from  greasy  drippings. 
Across  these  rods  were  laid,  like  the  rounds 
of  a  ladder,  shorter  sticks  or  reeds  to  which 
the  wicks  were  attached  at  intervals  of  a  few 
inches.  The  wicks  of  loosely  spun  cotton  or 
tow  were  dipped  time  and  time  again  into  the 

melted 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES,  307 

melted  tallow,  and  left  to  harden  between 
each  dipping.  Of  course,  if  the  end  of  the 
kitchen  (where  stood  the  rods  and  hung  the 
wicks)  were  very  cold,  the  candles  grew 
quickly,  since  they  hardened  quickly;  but 
they  were  then  more  apt  to  crack.  When 
they  were  of  proper  size,  they  were  cut  off, 
spread  in  a  sunny  place  in  the  garret  to 
bleach,  and  finally  stored  away  in  candle- 
boxes.  Sometimes  the  tallow  was  poured 
into  molds;  when,  of  course,  comparatively 
few  candles  could  be  made  in  a  day.  In  some 
communities  itinerant  candle-makers  carried 
molds  from  house  to  house,  and  assisted  in 
the  candle  manufacture. 

These  candles  were  placed  in  candle- 
sticks, or  in  large  rooms  were  set  in  rude 
chandeliers  of  strips  of  metal  with  sockets, 
called  candle-beams.  Handsome  rooms  had 
sconces,  and  the  kitchen  often  had  a  sliding 
stand  by  which  the  candle  could  be  adjusted 
at  a  desired  height.  Snuffers  were  as  indis- 
pensable as  candlesticks,  and  were  some- 
times called  snuffing-iron,  or  snit  —  a  word 
not  in  the  Century  Dictionary — from  the  old 
English  verb,  "snyten,"  to  blow  out.  The 
snuffers  lay  in  a  little  tray  called  a  snuffer- 
tray, 


308     COLONIAL   DAMES  AND   GOOD  WIVES. 

tray,  snuffer-dish,  snuffer-boat,  snuffer-slice, 
or  snuffer-pan.  Save-alls,  a  little  wire  frame 
to  hold  up  the  last  burning  end  of  candle, 
were  another  contrivance  of  our  frugal  an- 
cestors. 

In  no  way  was  a  thrifty  housewife  better 
known  than  through  her  abundant  stock  of 
symmetrical  candles;  and  nowhere  was  a 
skilful  and  dextrous  hand  more  needed  than 
in  shaping  them.  Still,  candles  were  not 
very  costly  if  the  careless  housewife  chose 
to  purchase  them.  The  Boston  Evening 
Post  of  October  5,  1767,  has  this  advertise- 
ment:  "Dip'd  Tallow  Candles  Half  a  Pis- 
tareen  the  single  Pound  &  Cheaper  by  Cwt" 

In  many  a  country  household  some  old- 
time  frugalities  linger,  but  the  bounteous 
oil-wells  of  Pennsylvania  have  rendered  can- 
dles not  only  obsolete,  but  too  costly  for 
country  use,  and  by  a  turn  of  fashion  they 
have  become  comparatively  an  article  of 
luxury,  but  still  seem  to  throw  an  old-time 
refinement  wherever  their  soft  rays  shine. 

An  account  of  housewifely  duties  in  my 
great-grandmother's  home  was  thus  written, 
in  halting  rhyme,  by  one  of  her  sons  when 
he  too  was  old  :  — 

The 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  309 

The  boys  dressed  the  flax,  the  girls  spun  the  tow, 

The  music  of  mother's  footwheel  was  not  slow. 

The  flax  on  the  bended  pine  distaff  was  spread, 

With  squash  shell  of  water  to  moisten  the  thread. 

Such  were  the  pianos  our  mothers  did  keep 

Which  they  played  on  while  spinning  their  children  to 

sleep. 

My  mother  I  'm  sure  must  have  borne  off  the  medal, 
For  she  always  was  placing  her  foot  on  the  pedal. 
The  warp  and  the  filling  were  piled  in  the  room, 
Till  the  web  was  completed  and  fit  for  the  loom, 
Then  labor  was  pleasure,  and  industry  smiled, 
And  the  wheel  and  the  loom  every  trouble  beguiled, 
And  there  at  the  distaff  the  good  wives  were  made. 
Thus  Solomon's  precepts  were  fully  obeyed. 

The  manufacture  of  the  farm-reared  wool 
was  not  so  burdensome  and  tedious  a~pro- 
cess  as  that  of  flax,  but  it  was  far  from 
pleasant.  The  fleeces  of  wool  had  to  be 
opened  out  and  cleaned  of  all  sticks,  burrs, 
leaves,  feltings,  tar-marks,  and  the  dirt  which 
always  remained  after  months'  wear  by  the 
sheep ;  then  it  had  to  be  sorted  out  for 
dyeing,  which  latter  was  a  most  unpleasant 
process.  Layers  of  the  various  colors  of 
wools  after  being  dyed  were  rolled  together 
and  carded  on  coarse  wool-cards,  again  and 
again,  then  slightly  greased  by  a  disagree- 
able and  tiresome  method,  then  run  into 
rolls.  The  wool  was  spun  on  the  great  wheel 

which 


310    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND  GOODWIVES. 

which  stood  in  the  kitchen  with  the  reel  and 
swifts,  and  often  by  the  glowing  firelight 
the  mother  spun.  A  tender  and  beautiful 
picture  of  this  domestic  scene  has  been 
drawn  by  Dr.  Gurdon  Russell,  of  Hartford, 
in  his  Up  Neck  in  1825. 

My  mother  was  spinning  with  the  great  wheel, 
the  white  rolls  of  wool  lay  upon  the  platform, 
and  as  they  were  spun  upon  the  spindle,  she 
turning  the  wheel  with  one  hand,  and  with  ex- 
tended arm  and  delicate  fingers  holding  the  roll 
in  the  other,  stepping  backwards  and  forwards 
lightly  till  it  was  spun  into  yarn,  it  formed  a 
picture  to  me,  sitting  upon  a  low  stool,  which 
can  never  be  forgotten.  Her  movements  were 
every  grace,  her  form  all  of  beauty  to  me  who 
opposite  sat  and  was  watching  her  dextrous 
fingers. 

The  manjfrrtiire  nf_flay  into  linen  mate- 
rial was  ever  felt  to  be  of  VasTTrnportance, 
and  was  encouraged  by  legislation  from  ear- 
liest colonial  days,  but  it  received  a  fresh 
impulse  in  New  England  through  the  im- 
migration of  about  one  hundred  Irish  fam- 
ilies from  Londonderry.  They  settled  in 
New  Hampshire  on  the  Merrimac  about 
1719.  They  spun  and  wove  by  hand,  but 

with 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  311 

with  far  more  skill  than  prevailed  among 
those  English  settlers  who  had  already  be- 
come Americans.  They  established  a  manu- 
factory according  to  Irish  methods,  and  at- 
tempts at  a  similar  establishment  were  made 
in  Boston.  There  was  much  public  excite- 
ment over  spinning.  Women,  rich  as  well 
as  poor,  appeared  on  Boston  Common  with 
their  wheels,  thus  making  spinning  a  pop- 
ular holiday  recreation.  A  brick  building 
was  erected  as  a  spinning -school,  and  a 
tax  was  placed  in  1737  to  support  it.  But 
this  was  not  an  industrial  success,  the  ex- 
citement died  out,  the  public  spinning-school 
lost  its  ephemeral  popularity,  and  the  wheel 
became  again  simply  a  domestic  duty  and 
pride. 

For  many  years  after  this,  housewives  had 
everywhere  flax  and  hemp  to  spin  and  weave 
in  their  homes,  and  the  preparation  of  these 
staples  seems  to  us  to-day  a  monumental 
labor.  On  almost  every  farm  might  be  seen 
a  patch  of  the  pretty  flax,  ripening  for  the 
hard  work  of  pulling,  rippling,  rotting,  break- 
ing, swingling,  and  combing,  which  all  had  to 
be  done  before  it  came  to  the  women's  hands 
for  spinning.  The  seed  was  sown  broad- 
cast, 


312     COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

cast,  and  allowed  to  grow  till  the  bobs  or 
bolls  were  ripe.  The  flax  was  then  pulled 
and  spread  neatly  in  rows  to  dry.  This 
work  could  be  done  by  boys.  Then  men 
whipped  or  threshed  or  rippled  out  all  the 
seed  to  use  for  meal ;  afterwards  the  flax 
stalks  were  allowed  to  lie  for  some  time  in 
water  until  the  shives  were  thoroughly  rot- 
ten, when  they  were  cleaned  and  once  more 
thoroughly  dried  and  tied  in  bundles.  Then 
came  work  for  strong  men,  to  break  the  flax 
on  the  ponderous  flaxbreak,  to  get  out  the 
hard  "  hexe "  or  "  bun,"  and  to  swingle  it 
with  a  swingle  knife,  which  was  somewhat 
like  a  wooden  dagger.  Active  men  could 
swingle  forty  pounds  a  day  on  the  swingling- 
board.  It  was  then  hetchelled  or  combed 
or  hackled  by  the  housewife,  and  thus  the 
rough  tow  was  gotten  out,  when  it  was 
straightened  and  made  ready  for  the  spruce 
distaff,  round  which  it  was  finally  wrapped. 
The  hatchelling  was  tedious  work  and  irri- 
tating to  the  lungs,  for  the  air  was  filled 
with  the  fluffy  particles  which  penetrated 
everywhere.  The  thread  was  then  spun  on 
a  "little  wheel."  It  was  thought  that  to 
spin  two  double  skeins  of  linen,  or  four 

double 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  313 

double  skeins  of  tow,  or  to  weave  six  yards 
of  linen,  was  a  good  day's  work.  For  a 
week's  work  a  girl  received  fifty  cents  and 
"  her  keep."  She  thus  got  less  than  a  cent 
and  a  half  a  yard  for  weaving.  The  skeins 
of  linen  thread  went  through  many  tedious 
processes  of  washing  and  bleaching  before 
being  ready  for  weaving ;  and  after  the  cloth 
was  woven  it  was  <l  bucked "  in  a  strong 
lye,  time  and  time  again,  and  washed  out 
an  equal  number  of  times.  Then  it  was 
"  belted  "  with  a  maple  beetle  on  a  smooth, 
flat  stone;  then  washed  and  spread  out  to 
bleach  in  the  pure  sunlight.  Sometimes  the 
thread,  after  being  spun  and  woven,  had  been 
washed  and  belted  a  score  of  times  ere  it 
was  deemed  white  and  soft  enough  to  use. 
The  little  girls  could  spin  the  "swingling 
tow  "  into  coarse  twine,  and  the  older  ones 
make  "  all  tow  "  and  "  tow  and  linen  "  and 
"  harden  "  stuffs  to  sell. 

To  show  the  various  duties  attending  the 
manufacture  of  these  domestic  textiles  by  a 
Boston  woman  of  intelligence  and  social 
standing,  as  late  as  1788,  let  me  quote  a  few 
entries  from  the  diary  of  the  wife  of  CoL 
John  May :  — 

A 


314    COLONIAL  DAMES  AND   GOODWIVES. 

A  large  kettle  of  yarn  to  attend  upon.  Lucre- 
tia  and  self  rinse  our  through  many  waters,  get 
out,  dry,  attend  to,  bring  in,  do  up  and  sort  no 
score  of  yarn,  this  with  baking  and  ironing. 

Went  to  hackling  flax. 

Rose  early  to  help  Ruth  warp  and  put  a  piece 
in  the  loom. 

Baking  and  hackling  yarn.  A  long  web  of 
tow  to  whiten  and  weave. 

The  wringing  out  of  this  linen  yarn  was 
most  exhausting,  and  the  rinsing  in  various 
waters  was  no  simple  matter  in  those  days, 
for  the  water  did  not  conveniently  run  into 
the  houses  through  pipes  and  conduits,  but 
had  to  be  laboriously  carried  in  pailfuls  from 
a  pump,  or  more  frequently  raised  in  a 
bucket  from  a  well. 

I  am  always  touched,  when  handling  the 
homespun  linens  of  olden  times,  with  a  sense 
that  the  vitality  and  strength  of  those  endur- 
ing women,  through  the  many  tedious  and 
exhausting  processes  which  they  had  be- 
stowed, were  woven  into  the  warp  and  woof 
with  the  flax,  and  gave  to  the  old  webs  of 
linen  their  permanence  and  their  beautiful 
texture.  How  firm  they  are,  and  how  lus- 
trous !  And  how  exquisitely  quaint  and  fine 

are 


FIRESIDE  INDUSTRIES.  315 

are  their  designs ;  sometimes  even  Scriptural 
designs  and  lessons  are  woven  into  them. 
They  are,  indeed,  a  beautiful  expression  of 
old-time  home  and  farm  life.  With  their 
close-woven,  honest  threads  runs  this  finer 
beauty,  which  may  be  impalpable  and  imper- 
ceptible to  a  stranger,  but  which  to  me  is 
real  and  ever-present,  and  puts  me  truly  in 
touch  with  the  life  of  my  forbears.  But, 
alas,  it  is  through  intuition  we  must  learn  of 
this  old-time  home  life,  for  it  has  vanished 
from  our  sight,  and  much  that  is  beautiful 
and  good  has  vanished  with  it. 

The  associations  of  the  kitchen  fireside 
that  linger  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  are 
now   old   can   find  no   counterpart    in  our 
domestic  surroundings  to-day.   The  welcome 
cheer  of  the  open  fire,  which  graced  and 
beautified  even  the  humblest  room,  is  lost 
forever  with   the  close  gatherings  of    the 
family,  the  household  occupations,  the  home- 
spun industries  which  formed  and  im- 
printed in  the  mind  of  every 
child  the  picture  of 
a  home. 


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